The Heights • A History

The Heights . A History. . What we know today as The Heights, known earlier as Pulaski Heights, started as a place called Forest Park, Little Rock's largest private park. The last stop on the trolley line, the park was created by the streetcar company to draw visitors to this tract well outside the congested downtown and opened in the summer of 1904. It covered an area from Kavanaugh Boulevard (then called Prospect) to V Street and from University Avenue (then called Hayes Street) to N. Taylor Street (then called Woodson)., Its attractions included a huge swimming pool and bathhouse, a merry-go-round, a dance pavilion, a shooting gallery, a "laughing gallery," an aerial swing, an auditorium, a refreshment stand, a figure-eight railroad, a promenade and bandstand , even a horse racing track as well as a car barn for the trolley line that ended at Forest Park., Little Rock's first streetcars, pulled by mules, started running in 1877 and were replaced with electric ones in 1891. That same year, a group of developers bought 800 acres "in the highlands northwest of the city" for $80,000. This purchase was the beginning of Pulaski Heights, an incorporated municipality from 1905 until 1916, when it was annexed to the city of Little Rock., Today, "The Heights" is "enthroned" 350 feet above the city and still providing the amenities sought by earlier residents: "pure air, good water, unrivaled scenery and every modern improvement and convenience known to this age of progressive enterprise."