Old State House Museum Collections Blog

   In 1981, roughly 16,000 architectural drawings by Charles L. Thompson were donated to the Old State House Museum.  Hundreds of Thompson's buildings still stand across the state of Arkansas, and in order to make this resource more accessible, we have spent the last few years digitizing the drawings and making them available online for public viewing.   You can view those drawings and records that are currently available at the following link - eMuseum Thomspon Drawings.  We also accommodate information requests for those drawing not yet online, as well as high resolution scans.  Below is an excerpt from the Old State House Museum page concerning Thompson.

    Charles L. Thompson was born in November 1868, the third of James C. and Henrietta Lightner Thompson's seven children. Charles became a draftsman at an Indiana mill, but, dissatisfied, he decided to seek employment elsewhere.
    On his way home from New Orleans in 1886, Thompson stopped in Little Rock. He chose to stay here, in part, because there were many opportunities for his architectural expertise. Later, he was quoted as saying that he chose Little Rock because it was "the farthest in the wilderness." Thompson began work for Benjamin J. Bartlett; in 1888, he became an architect and full partner in the firm. In 1890, Bartlett left for Mississippi and the firm became known as Charles L. Thompson, Architect and Superintendent. Throughout the next several decades, Thompson worked by himself and with a variety of partners. Many homes in the historic Quapaw Quarter were designed or modified by Thompson or his firm. His work was not limited to central Arkansas. Carnall Hall at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville (ca. 1900), the Newport Jr. and Sr. High School in Newport (ca. 1930), the Monroe County Courthouse in Clarendon (ca. 1911), and the Charles H. Murphy, Sr. House in El Dorado (ca. 1926) are just a few of Thompson's designs located around the state. Charles L. Thompson retired in 1938. After 20 further years of retirement service to his community, he died in 1959 at age 91.

The Walter W. Brown Home, Camden


The A. N. Tanner House, Helena

The Peter Hotze House, Little Rock


For more information on Charles L. Thompson, see F. Hampton Roy's book Charles L. Thompson and Associates: Arkansas Architects, 1885-1938.