Dunbar Neighborhood.

As part of an ongoing photography project, ”Around my way,” I am taking a closer look at my neighborhood, which includes an array of downtown neighborhoods: the historic Dunbar Neighborhood, the Wright Avenue neighborhood, the Central High neighborhood, the Governor’s district, and more.

I’m not sure where or how to start, so for now, I’m just trying to notice: patterns of color, shape, shadow, form, texture, and lighting.

Today, on my morning walk, I noticed the vivid colors of homes in the historic Dunbar neighborhood in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Dunbar neighborhood in Little Rock is bounded by Martin Luther King Drive on the west, West 8th Street on the north, Broadway on the east, and West 29th on the south.

The centerpiece of Dunbar neighborhood is the Paul Laurence Dunbar School. According to the National Park Service, the school was, at the time it was built during the 1920s, the most modern and complete public high school building in the United States erected specifically for Black students. Today, it is a public school for middle school students.

You can read more of the history of the Dunbar neighborhood in Little Rock on the “Encyclopedia of Arkansas.”

I wonder if the houses in Dunbar were so brightly colored 50 years ago?

100 years ago?

Click on the first photo to see the photos with longer captions in gallery format.