Proposal to turn 200-year-old structure into bar gets ‘not so fast’ reaction from museum commission

A proposal to turn the oldest standing structure in Little Rock, located at the Historic Arkansas Museum, into a working tavern was met with some pushback by the museum’s commissioners who worry the changes would harm the building’s integrity.

The two-story frame structure, known as the Hinderliter Grog Shop, was built around 1827. At the August commission meeting, officials from the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, sprang the idea of making the historic building a bar on the commissioners, according to minutes from the meeting and interviews with two members.

“It was presented to us at the August meeting…” commission secretary Gordon Rather said. “The commission has not been considering this as a project before it was proposed.”

Several members in the administrative hierarchy attended the meeting – Suzanne Grobmyer, chief of staff for the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, and Marty Ryall and Laura McClellan with the Division of Arkansas Heritage, which falls under the department. Ryall is director of the division, and McClellan is deputy director as well as the interim director of the Old State House Museum.

Ryall, according to the minutes, said he thought the renovation would increase traffic at the museum by giving it another interpretive experience and that having a period-specific tavern would complement the 30 Crossing Park being planned nearby. 

Grobmyer said she believed the project would enhance the museum’s efforts to explore and educate about the state’s culinary heritage.

Commissioners, though, worried about what the renovation would do to an old and valued structure, according to meeting minutes.

“Several Commissioners expressed concern with the project and offered other options to consider,” stated the minutes. “For example, creating a bar area inside the museum in the upstairs restaurant/cafe area to serve historic beverages, and the like. Several Commissioners were further concerned with harming the material integrity of the Hinderliter, especially since it is the oldest structure in Little Rock still standing in its original location – a territorial gem and one of the oldest remaining structures in the state of Arkansas.”

Jesse Hinderliter, a German, who came to the area from St. Louis, with his wife Sophia, built the Hinderliter Grog Shop, according to CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas. The two lived in the building where they served grog, described as rum diluted with water and sometimes served warm, and offered room and board. 

The structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. The meeting minutes note that the changes to the building would not alter that designation.

During the meeting, AMR Architects, a Little Rock firm, presented a feasibility study and recommendation to the commission. The firm considered a number of options but settled on “a light-touch cask-beverage-and-sealed-snack tavern operating from the Hinderliter, with all modern restroom and dishwashing infrastructure consolidated in the Legacy House.” The Legacy House is a one-story brick house built in the 1850s that was previously used as the museum’s reception area, according to the museum’s website. 

Serving Arkansas-made grog, made from cider and wine, and ale in a cask, served in tin or stone mugs, “is the most historically authentic of beverage options evaluated, …” the firm stated in an executive summary. And not serving warm food would limit the impact on the structure.

“Every increment of scope inside the historic envelope increases preservation risk, operational complexity and capital exposure,” the firm stated in the study.

The study says the renovation would put the structure to use in the way it operated in the past but “does so while respecting the building as the irreplaceable artifact it is.” 

Many of the changes would be reversible, the study says, although widening door openings to make the entryways accessible to wheelchairs would be permanent. 

Even though the design plan would involve minimal changes to the structure, the study left open the idea of increasing the offerings within the tavern.

“The scheme also defers, rather than forecloses, more ambitious programming,” stated the study. “A successful cask-and-snack operation in Years 1 and 2 generates the visitation data, operating experience, and supply-partner relationships that would inform a later decision to add a warming-kitchen food program. … Starting smaller on food is the most reversible operational choice.”

Ryall, Grobmyer and Kate East, an interior designer with AMR Architects, said the plans were preliminary and that nothing had been decided, according to the minutes. 

Commissioner Rather asked for the commission to be invited to future meetings when the project was under discussion. James M. “Butch” Warren, chair of the commission, then put together a three-person committee, made up of commissioners Rather, Kyle Wilson and John Greer, to gather more information on the proposal. Those three, according to Warren, are scheduled to meet with Ryall later this month for more discussions.

In the event that the commissioners object to the renovation proposal, it would appear they would lose that fight with administration if they want to proceed. A law passed in 2025 shifted the Historic Arkansas Museum Commission and several other such entities under the control of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, the head of which answers directly to Gov. Sarah Sanders.