LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) – Street signs tell you where you are or where you need to go, but they can also tell a story. Have you ever thought, while driving down the road, “who in the world is (insert street name) and why is this street named after them?” We have, too.
Ya know, some streets are obvious. Like President Clinton Avenue or Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, but many street names are coined after someone or something a little less assuming.
Monday morning marked the first episode of Street Smart, as we explore the origin of Markham Street in Little Rock.
In 1819, Arkansas was the new frontier, attracting settlers to move to a new town called Little Rock.
Stone monuments in Riverfront Park mark the first boundary of the city after the treaty with the Quapaw Indians in 1818. By 1820, Little Rock was declared the capital and Mayor Dr. Matthew Cunningham paved the way for development.
“It is a little uncertain who plotted the first town of Little Rock in 1822. William Russell, the investor, credited of laying out the first town, but he got input from Matthew Cunningham who was from Philadelphia. He loved the streets there and several of the early street names came from Philadelphia,” said Mike Hood, Little Rock’s Civil Engineering Director.
Vintage photos of Markham St. in Little Rock
On an early map from those days is Markham, along with several street names that have since been replaced. So where did Markham come from?
“I can’t find any information either. The best story I can tell is there were two or three brothers that arrived from somewhere. We don’t know what their names were and where exactly they came from, or where they went when they left, but they stayed here for a time and laid out a street and moved on,” Hood said.
But this street is the foundation of the city.
“Every map of the town and city of Little Rock evermore bore the name of a Markham Street, and it’s the baseline for all the streets,” he said.
As our mission to understand Markham’s origin has started to feel like a dead end, we took a detour and spoke with historian Mike Polston.
He said, “Markham is kind of strange really, when you look at it, as far as concrete proof that bore the name of where Markham Street came from, there has not been any discovered yet.” He added, “It’s kind of frustrating, but then it is also kind of interesting. You could be that person that could discover where it came from and that basic fact.”
Hood said, “You got to keep in mind, when this went down, it was not the state of Arkansas. It was Arkansas Territory. It was a wild, rough place out in the Old West.”
So, as we conclude our first episode of Street Smart, we end with a question mark. Its origin is not 100 percent clear.
If you have any thoughts or insight on Markham Street, be sure to share that with us on Facebook!
Think you have street smarts? Take our quiz on Markham Street here:
Special thanks to the Arkansas State Archives for allowing THV11 to use the historic photos seen in this story.