Old Mill at T.R. Pugh Memorial Park!

What Is The Old Mill at T.R. Pugh Memorial Park?

The famous mill featured in the opening credits of Gone with the Wind was never really a mill but a memorial!

What Makes It Historical?

Schooled to be a pharmacist, Justin Matthews set his sights on real estate in the early 1900s. His goal was land development, and to get there, he spearheaded two controversial projects: the paving of Little Rock’s streets and the building of extra bridges over the Arkansas River! With those bridges in place, the Matthews Land Company set to developing its first neighborhood of Park Hill, which Mr. Matthews likened to an assembly line and limited strictly to Caucasian residents. In the late ’20s he went on to develop another area called Sylvan Hills, equipped with its own country club, but he was unable to open these communities as grandly as he hoped, because of a little calamity called the Great Depression!

Nevertheless, he kept building, and in the Lakewood subdivision, he assigned architect, Frank Carmean, to lay out a park, which Mr. Matthews dedicated to his friend and benefactor, Thomas Pugh, on August 6, 1933. T.R. Pugh Memorial Park spread out from a replica of a 19th Century grist mill, built over the remains of an actual mill once belonging to the Cagle family of Pope County! It also incorporated mill stones from Mr. Pugh’s grandfather’s plantation, and had a fully functioning water wheel to represent Mr. Pugh’s tireless energy!

That wheel, and the surrounding bridges and benches, were the creations of Mexico City artist, Dionicio Rodriguez, who had perfected a secret technique of faux bois sculpture! This concrete art was crafted to look amazingly like real wood, down to the grain! He filled the park with amazing sculptures, then went on to create more across Arkansas, Couchwood in Garland County and Little Switzerand in Hot Spring County! When he died in 1955, Sr. Rodriguez left behind no clues as to how he created his woodlike sculptures, making these one-of-a-kind creations super unique and well worth a look!

How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?

Donate to the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program!
Donate to the Friends of the Old Mill!
Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!