Discover 20 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Pine Bluff (United States). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Strengthen the Arm of Liberty Monument, Arkansas Railroad Museum, and Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. Also, be sure to include Saenger Theatre in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Pine Bluff (Arkansas).
Table of Contents
Strengthen the Arm of Liberty Monument
Tourist attraction in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The Strengthen the Arm of Liberty Monument is a replica of the Statue of Liberty in Pine Bluff Memorial Gardens, on the south side of 10th Avenue between Georgia and State Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It was placed by the Boy Scouts of America as part of its 1950s era campaign, "Strengthen the Arm of Liberty." The statue is 8 feet in height, made of copper, and is mounted on concrete base 3.5 feet tall. The statue faces north, toward the Pine Bluff Civic Center, and there is a bronze commemorative plaque on the north face of the base. It is one of two BSA-placed statues in the state; the other is in Fayetteville.
The statue was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.[1]
Arkansas Railroad Museum
Museum in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Arkansas Railroad Museum is located on Port Road in Pine Bluff, Arkansas at the former Cotton Belt yard.
The former SSW shops are occupied by the historic collection of railroad equipment. This museum is about an hour's drive from Little Rock, AR, and is one of the largest displays of historic railroad equipment in Arkansas. Between the disappearance of SSW in 1992 into parent Southern Pacific and the size of the collection, Arkansas Railroad Museum can be considered an upper-level railroad preservation facility. The Museum is operated by the Cotton Belt Rail Historical Society and local volunteers. The Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9 AM to 2 PM and on Sunday afternoon by appointment.[2]
Address: 1700 Port Rd, 71601-4663 Pine Bluff
Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas
Museum in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas is a 22,000-square-foot art and science museum located at 701 Main Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It includes four galleries, a 232-seat theatre, classroom space, administrative offices, vault and adequate preparatory and conservation space for the Center's current programming efforts.
Support for the center is provided in part by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, and the National Endowment for the Arts.[3]
Address: 701 S Main St, 71601-4903 Pine Bluff
Saenger Theatre
Theater in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The Saenger Theatre is an historic theater in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Located at West Second Ave. and Pine St. on the southeast corner, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Built in 1924 to a design by Emile Weil, it is a Classical Revival brick building with an ornate interior that was last restyled in 1937. It is one of only a handful of Saenger movie palaces that remain.[4]
Address: 207 W 2nd Ave, 71601-4205 Pine Bluff
Trinity Episcopal Church
Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Trinity Episcopal Church is a historic church at 703 West 3rd Avenue in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Its congregation meets in a handsome brick Gothic Revival structure, with a square buttressed tower and buttressed side walls with lancet-arched stained glass windows. The church was built 1866-70 for a church congregation organized in 1860 by the Rev. Robert Trimble. Initially named St. John's, it was renamed Trinity after Trimble received guidance from members of the Trinity Church in New York City. It is unique in Arkansas as having a burial chamber under its chancel; it is that of early parishioner Cornelia Bell Roane, who died in 1862. It is an active member of the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[5]
Address: 703 W 3rd Ave, 71601-4009 Pine Bluff
Pine Bluff Confederate Monument
The Pine Bluff Confederate Monument has long been located in front of the Jefferson County courthouse, at Barraque and Main Streets in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It depicts a standing Confederate Army soldier, holding a rifle whose butt rests on the ground. The statue, built out of Georgia marble by the McNeel Marble Company, stands on a stone base 15 feet in height and 10 by 10 feet at the base. It was placed in 1910 by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. On June 20, 2020, the monument was removed from the Jefferson County courthouse as part of a cooperative agreement between County Judge Gerald Robinson and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The statue was then moved to an undisclosed location for storage where it can be cleaned and repaired.[6]
McDonald's sign
The McDonald's Sign, also known as McDonald's Store #433 Sign, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States, is one of only two surviving examples of a single-arch McDonald's sign. The sign was erected in 1962 and remained at its original location until 2007. That year, McDonald's Store #433 moved and the sign was renovated and moved to the new location. The McDonald's sign was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2006.[7]
Pine Bluff Convention Center
Convention center in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The Pine Bluff Convention Center is a convention center located in Pine Bluff, Arkansas at One Convention Center Plaza.[8]
Address: 500 E 8th Ave, Pine Bluff
Union Station
Museum in Pine Bluff. Union Station is a former railroad station at East 4th Ave. and State St. in Pine Bluff, Jefferson County, Arkansas. The station was originally at the union of the Cotton Belt and Iron Mountain railroads, and now houses the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Historical Society museum. It is a single-story brick building, with a hip roof whose long eaves are supported by iron columns and half-truss brackets. The station was built in 1906 by the Iron Mountain Railroad. It had been a stop on the St. Louis Southwestern's Lone Star, and also on the railway's St. Louis-Dallas trains.
Ownership reverted to the city in 1955.
The station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[9]
Community Theatre
Theatre in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The Community Theatre is a historic theatre building at 207 West 2nd Avenue in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It is a two-story brick building, finished in stucco, with Moderne styling. It was built in 1889, and housed first a furniture store, and then a five and dime, before being converted for theatrical use in the 1920s. Its present Moderne styling dates to renovations made in the wake of a 1951 fire.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.[10]
Merchants and Planters Bank Building
Building in Pine Bluff. The Merchants and Planters Bank Building Historic Landmark is a large brick structure featuring in its architectural design round turrets, arched windows, granite foundation and decorative brick work. In addition to its architectural significance, it represents a large part of downtown Pine Bluff's commercial development. The Merchants & Planters Bank replaced its initially occupied 1872 structure in 1891. Included was a new vault by the Mosler Company still in working order today. The installation of the vault proved to be a good investment as a fire on January 24, 1892, destroyed the new building and almost everything on the north half of the block between Barraque Street and 2nd Avenue and Main and Pine Streets. Little Rock architect Thomas A. Harding was immediately employed to draw plans for a fine new building. A contract was let to W. I. Hilliard of Pine Bluff and the new building was completed on October 31, 1892. The plumbing and gas fixtures were installed by F.A. Stanley and John P. Haight furnished the millwork. The interior fixtures of polished oak with brass railings were supplied by A. H. Andrews of Chicago, "well-known bank outfitters." The bank had a tile floor and entrance arches and column supported by massive blocks of Fourche mountain granite. The building was described as of modern bank architecture and, in exterior and interior adornment, as "one of the handsomest bank buildings in the South." The bank was a victim of the Great Depression in 1930 after 60 years of continuous operation.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places pursuant to application by Jim Hood (1928-1999) in 1978. It is now the property of Southern Development Corporation.[11]
W.E. O'Bryant Bell Tower
The W.E. O'Bryant Bell Tower occupies a prominent central position on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It is a three-stage brick structure, with open arches at the base where a fountain once stood. The second stage houses a belfry, and the third a clock. The corners are buttressed, and the levels divided by bands of concrete. The tower was built in 1943–47.
The tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.[12]
DODX Guard Car No. G-56
The DODX Guard Car No. G-56 is a historic railroad car at the Arkansas Railroad Museum in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It was built about 1942 by the American Car and Foundry Company, and is a rare surviving example of a World War II troop transport, and as a railroad guard car used by the United States Department of Defense in the management of hazardous and valuable cargos that it transported by rail. The car is silver, with a horizontal black stripe on the side.
The car was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.[13]
MacMillan-Dilley House
Building in Pine Bluff. The MacMillan-Dilley House is a historic house at 407 Martin Avenue in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It is a two-story wood-frame structure, with a cross-gable roof configuration, and distinctive siding consisting of boards topped by moulding. The underside of the extended roof gables are painted white, and the building has other features that are signatures of the Prairie School of design. It was built in 1903 to a design by Chicago architect Hugh M.G. Garden, who had supposedly studied with the major exponent of the Prairie School style, Frank Lloyd Wright.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.[14]
Mills House
The Mills House is a historic house at 715 West Barraque Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It is a 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, three bays wide, with a front gable roof, weatherboard siding, and a brick foundation. Its front has a porch extending across the front, which has turned posts, a spindlework balustrade and frieze, and jigsawn brackets. Built in 1902, it is a good local example of vernacular architecture with Folk Victorian details.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.[15]
Katzenstein House
Building in Pine Bluff. The Katzenstein House is a historic house at 902 West 5th Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It is a two-story brick building, capped by a clipped-gable tile roof. An enclosed front porch projects from the left side of the front. The main gable features a band of five casement windows, and both the main gable and the porch gable feature half-timbered stucco finish. The house was designed by Charles L. Thompson and built in 1913. It is an unusual blending of Craftsman styling applied to an largely American Foursquare plan.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.[16]
Fox House
The Fox House is a historic house at 1303 South Olive Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It is a two-story frame structure, its exterior finished in a variety of materials, with a tiled hip roof. The walls have a typical Craftsman-style variety of materials, including brick, stone, and stuccoed half-timbering. A gable-roofed entrance portico projects from the front, supported by brick piers and featuring extended eaves and large brackets. The house was designed by Theodore Sanders and built c. 1910.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.[17]
Temple House
The Temple House is a historic house at 1702 South Oak Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It is a two-story brown brick structure, with a low-pitch hip roof and broad eaves typical of the Prairie School of architecture. A single-story flat-roof porch extends across the front, continuing to a form a porte-cochere to the left, with brick piers and low brick wall with stone coping. The house was built c. 1910 to a design by the architectural firm of Theo Sanders.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.[18]
Carnahan House
The Carnahan House is a historic house at 1200 South Laurel Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Built in 1919, it is a high-quality example of Craftsman and Tudor Revival styling, designed by Mitchell Seligman, a prolific local architect. It is a 2+1⁄2-story brick structure, with a side gable roof and a front-facing cross gable with half-timber stucco. The property includes a garage and guesthouse, also designed by Seligman.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.[19]
Gibson-Burnham House
The Gibson-Burnham House is a historic house at 1326 Cherry Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It is a roughly L-shaped two story wood-frame structure, with a hip roof across its front and a gabled rear section. A single-story porch extends across the front, supported by Ionic columns. Its interior has well-preserved original woodwork, including notable a staircase built out of quarter-sawn oak and displayed at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Built in 1904 by a local plantation owner, it is a fine local example of Colonial Revival architecture.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.[20]