The Quapaw Quarter is Little Rock's historic heart — a nine-square-mile district centred on the oldest residential and commercial areas of the city. The neighbourhood takes its name from the Quapaw Nation, the indigenous people who lived in central Arkansas before European settlement.
The area is most easily explored on foot. The densest concentration of antebellum and Victorian architecture in Arkansas is here: Queen Anne cottages, Colonial Revival townhouses, Gothic churches, and Craftsman bungalows. Unlike many Southern historic districts, much of the Quapaw Quarter remains lived-in and genuinely residential, which gives it a character that over-restored tourist districts lack. The Governor's Mansion is at the western edge; MacArthur Park anchors the south.