Rock Island Argenta Depot

The Rock Island Argenta Depot at 1201 East 4^th Street in North Little Rock (Pulaski County) is a single-story, Mediterranean-style brick passenger depot built in 1913 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 21, 1989. Shorter College announced plans to convert the building into a technology hub.

Though North Little Rock’s development was heavily influenced by railroads, it was not until 1913 that the Rock Island Railroad constructed the first depot to serve the community, possibly to ease local tensions after the Rock Island shops were moved across the Arkansas River to Little Rock (Pulaski County). The presence of a depot on the north side would pay off for the community when it made a successful bid to construct Camp Pike, a World War I military training facility.

The building was designed in the Mediterranean style of architecture by the Rock Island line’s staff architect, A. T. Hawk. The National Register nomination notes that the style was typically used for “grandiose residences and major public commissions,” but the Rock Island Argenta Depot “displays a mastery of ‘scaling down’ the vocabulary of this idiom and distilling the essential proportions and elements to create a simple and elegant solution to the requirements of a passenger railroad station. The Rock Island Railroad depots generally display a subtle variety of renderings within this style, and this is arguably the finest with the explicitly Spanish Colonial influences.” The Lonoke Rock Island Depot shares a similar design.

Passenger service at the depot ended shortly after World War II, but the Rock Island Railroad still maintained offices in the building until 1960. After the railroad went out of business around 1980, the building began to deteriorate. Following its listing on the National Register in 1989, the City of North Little Rock received a $189,742 grant through the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, matching it with $82,958 in city funds to restore the depot. The clay tile roof was replaced, as were the windows and doors, and the Rock Island Railroad Club located the original Rock Island stencil to paint the logo on the building.

The Rock Island Argenta Depot housed after-school organizations for children during the early 2000s, and in December 2020 the City of North Little Rock leased it to Shorter College. In late November 2023, the college announced that it had received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration to establish a technology hub in the building. The planned $1.8 million project will include classrooms, a technology equipment center, offices, and a credit union that will be available to Shorter College students and staff members, as well as residents of the depot’s East Broadway neighborhood. Plans call for completion by the fall of 2024.

For additional information:
Collins, David. “Sandwiching in History—11/6/2018—Rock Island Argenta Depot.” Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas. Online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5UI4okaiMc (accessed March 5, 2024).

James, Elizabeth. “Sandwiching in History Tour, Argenta Rock Island Depot, March 2, 2007.” Script on file at the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas.

“Shorter College Starts Work on $1.8 Million Tech Center.” Leader, February 21, 2024, p. 6.

Snyder, Josh. “Shorter College Plans Tech Hub.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 4, 2023, pp. 1A, 3A. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/dec/04/18m-technology-hub-to-revitalize-east-broadway/ (accessed March 5, 2023).

Story, Kenneth. “Rock Island-Argenta Depot.” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. On file at the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas. Online at https://www.arkansasheritage.com/arkansas-historic-preservation-program (accessed March 5, 2024).

Mark K. Christ
Central Arkansas Library System