1930 Art-Deco Campus With a Shadowy Balcony
201 W. 22nd St., North Little Rock, AR 72114
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Currently no public ticketing; exterior and grounds may be viewed. Future renovation plans may introduce public access.
Access
Limited Access
Paved sidewalks, exterior grounds
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1930 · Art-Deco Architecture · National Register of Historic Places · Arkansas Public Education History
Construction of North Little Rock High School began in 1928 on the corner of 22nd and Main Streets and was completed in 1930. Architect George R. Mann of the Little Rock firm Peterson, William, Mann, Wanger & King designed the building in a light-colored brick and concrete Art-Deco style that was distinctive for its era in Pulaski County.
The auditorium retains its 1929 chandeliers, original wooden doors, and decades-old windows in the iconic tower. These features survived largely intact through the building's decades of active use. The school was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, recognizing its architectural and community significance.
In 1990, a district consolidation reorganized the campus as North Little Rock High School West Campus, serving eleventh and twelfth graders alongside a separate East Campus. Students relocated to a unified campus in 2015, leaving Ole Main largely unused.
By 2019, district officials had convened a task force to address the building's future. Board President Tracy Steele publicly advocated for converting upper floors to banquet and museum use. A 2025 millage proposal allocated funds for renovating Ole Main to house the North Little Rock Center of Excellence, a planned charter high school.
The building remains structurally intact. Original architectural details — the auditorium lighting booth, the tower windows, the wrought-iron fixtures — are still in place.
Sources
The auditorium at Ole Main carries a specific, localized piece of folklore. The lighting area above the stage — accessible to technical theatre students during productions — is where the reported figure appears.
The account is brief: a person standing on the stage and looking up into the lighting booth can occasionally see a faint outline of what appears to be a young woman, moving quickly back and forth. The figure appears and vanishes without interaction. It does not respond, descend, or otherwise behave as an intelligent presence.
This is the only paranormal account associated with the building in available sources. No historical incident — no student death in the building, no verified tragedy in the auditorium — has been identified in news archives or school records to explain the origin of the legend. The 2003 NLRTV student news production about the ghost story confirms the legend circulated actively among students, but it does not provide a documented historical basis.
The building has been largely unused since 2015. Its unoccupied floors, dim lighting, and acoustic properties — characteristic of large masonry structures of the era — create conditions that observers have described as atmospherically charged.
Notable Entities
The Ole Main building stands largely vacant following students' departure in 2015. The four-story Art-Deco brick facade, original windows, and auditorium tower are visible from the street and sidewalk. The district's renovation plans — approved in a 2025 millage proposal — may eventually open the building to the public. Visitors should not enter without permission.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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