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Read More about this safari issue.Arkansas Women in Preservation: Keeping the Past Alive for the Future
Every historic building, restored landmark or preserved story in Arkansas has someone behind it. In Arkansas, there is a growing group of women protecting place and preserving story!
Across the state, women in preservation are doing steady, often unseen work to protect Arkansas’s past while helping shape its future. Their work is not about freezing places in time. It is about giving them life again. It is about restoring purpose, creating connection, and ensuring the stories tied to these places are not lost.
From the Ozarks to the Delta, these leaders are preserving more than buildings. They are safeguarding identity, memory, and community while creating access to future generations.
5 Arkansas Women in Preservation
Rachel Patton | Preserve Arkansas
As executive director of Preserve Arkansas, Rachel Patton is helping guide preservation efforts across the entire state.
Her work focuses on education, advocacy, and practical solutions. Whether identifying endangered places or helping communities take the next step toward saving them, her approach is rooted in progress, not perfection.
As she often emphasizes, preservation is not about turning places into static museums. It is about returning them to meaningful use. A historic building can become a home, a gathering space, or a business. A cemetery can become a place of reflection and connection.
Through programs, resources, and statewide outreach, Preserve Arkansas helps communities safeguard the places that hold their stories.
Where to explore:
Look for sites featured on Preserve Arkansas’s “Most Endangered Places” list or attend one of their public programs to see preservation work in action across the state. Rachel also led the Sandwiching in History tours for the Arkansas History Preservation Program and narrates many of the archived assets available online.
Vanessa McKuin | Historic Cane Hill
In the hills of northwest Arkansas, Vanessa McKuin is helping transform an entire historic community into a destination for discovery.
As executive director of Historic Cane Hill, she leads preservation efforts across a campus featuring more than a dozen historic structures, archaeological sites, and cultural landscapes. Yet her vision extends beyond restoration.
Under her leadership, Cane Hill has become a place where history, art, nature, and community intersect. Visitors can walk trails, attend festivals, explore exhibits, and experience stories of early Arkansas, the Civil War, and the Trail of Tears, all in one place.
Her work reflects a powerful idea: preservation is not just about saving buildings but about activating them.
Where to explore:
Visit Historic Cane Hill for trails, seasonal festivals, art programs, and guided experiences that bring history to life in a rural Ozark setting.
Rose Schweikhart | Superior Bathhouse Brewery
Sometimes preservation means reimagining what a historic space can be.
That is exactly what Rose Schweikhart did when she transformed a long-vacant 1916 bathhouse into Superior Bathhouse Brewery. Located along Bathhouse Row, the brewery is the only one inside a U.S. national park and the only one in the world to use thermal spring water.
Her work is a powerful example of adaptive reuse. Instead of letting a historic structure fade, she brought it back to life with a new purpose while maintaining its historic character.
Today, the building is filled with energy again, welcoming visitors from around the world.
Where to explore:
Stop by Superior Bathhouse Brewery in Hot Springs to experience one of Arkansas’s most creative preservation success stories.
Ruth O’Loughlin | Lakeport Plantation
In the Arkansas Delta, Ruth O’Loughlin is helping tell one of the state’s most complex and important stories. As site director at Lakeport Plantation, she oversees the preservation and interpretation of the only remaining antebellum plantation home on the Mississippi River in Arkansas.
Yet the focus here is not on nostalgia.
Instead, Lakeport offers a thoughtful, honest look at the past, exploring both the architecture and the lives of those who lived and worked there. Through exhibits, tours, and programs, visitors are invited to learn, reflect, and engage meaningfully with history, including summer guided tours, readers’ retreats, and events such as the recent Mississippi River Symposium.
Where to explore:
Plan a visit to Lakeport Plantation for guided tours, educational programs, and special events that connect visitors with Arkansas’s Delta heritage and Southern stories.
Pat Johnson | Eddie Mae Herron Center and Museum
Preservation is also about safeguarding stories that might otherwise disappear.
In Pocahontas, Pat Johnson has dedicated decades to that work. As the founder of the Eddie Mae Herron Center, she transformed a former segregated one-room school into a vibrant cultural and community space.
The center preserves and shares African American history in Randolph County through exhibits, events, and storytelling. From Juneteenth celebrations to traditional foodways demonstrations, it remains a place where history is both lived and shared.
Her work is deeply personal, rooted in her experiences as a student in the building and in her determination to ensure that history is not forgotten. In 2024, Johnson was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Where to explore:
Visit the Eddie Mae Herron Center to experience local history, cultural programs, and community events that bring the past to life.
Patricia Blick | Quapaw Quarter Association
In Little Rock, Patricia Blick is helping preserve the character of entire neighborhoods. As executive director of the Quapaw Quarter Association, she works to protect historic homes, advocate for preservation-friendly development, and connect people with the stories behind the city’s architecture.
Her work often involves detailed research, restoration efforts, and collaboration with homeowners and developers. It is a reminder that preservation is as much about people as it is about places.
Where to explore:
Attend the Quapaw Quarter Tour of Homes or explore Little Rock’s historic districts to see preservation at work in an urban setting. This area of Little Rock includes important sites like the Governor’s Mansion, MacArthur Park, the Little Rock Arsenal, Mount Holly Cemetery and the SoMa District.
A Statewide Movement: Women in Preservation
These women are just a small part of a much larger network. Programs such as the Women in Preservation initiative by Preserve Arkansas help connect professionals, historians, and community advocates statewide. Through free monthly webinars and shared resources, these programs foster space for collaboration, learning, and inspiration.
The field itself is wide-ranging. Preservation can mean restoring a historic home, repurposing a downtown building, documenting local stories, or protecting cultural traditions. It is happening in big cities, small towns, and rural communities throughout Arkansas.
And there is always room for more people to get involved. These monthly meetings are open to the public, are online, and are a great way to learn more about the conversation surrounding preservation in Arkansas.
Their Work (Your Work) Matters
Historic places are more than landmarks; they are gathering spaces, learning environments, and reminders of who we are and where we have come from. When preserved and used, they continue to serve communities in meaningful ways.
The women leading this work are not only saving buildings but also creating opportunities for connection, education, discovery, and storytelling.
The best way to understand preservation is to experience it.
Walk through a restored building. Attend a festival. Visit a museum you have never been to before. Talk to the people who are keeping these places alive.
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