The Belle Grove District of Fort Smith is a survivor of the frontier city's colorful past. As the military outpost expanded beyond the banks of the Arkansas River, this district began to develop into the center of the early residential area.

During the course of its development, its streets were familiar to literary figures such as Washington Irving and Josiah Gregg. Military men who were to figure prominently in the affairs of our Nation - men like Zachary Taylor, George McClellan, and Benjamin Eulalie Bonneville were stationed at the Fort or lived in the area. The Indian removal, the Mexican War, the Gold Rush, and the tragedy of the Civil War took place during the growth of the Belle Grove District. The varied character of the Belle Grove District is reflected in the variety of arch­itectural styles still surviving. These include Gothic Revival, Victorian Renaissance, Victorian Baroque, Victorian Romanesque, Classic Revival, and Eastlake Victorian.

After the Civil War, Fort Smith experienced a period of growth that expanded the boundaries of the Belle Grove District far beyond the limits of the 1840 town plat. This new growth, and postwar prosperity, saw the building of ornate and elaborate homes of the Victorian period.

Judge Isaac Charles Parker, Fort Smith's famous "hanging judge", who was to rule the Western District of Arkansas and the Indian Territory with an iron hand, was a resident of the Belle Grove District. Judge Parker brought the law to the Indian Territory, a vast area that extended from the Arkansas border to the Rockies, and from Kansas on the north to Texas on the south. For many years, his court in Fort Smith was the only trial court in the civilized world from whose decisions there was no right of appeal. During Parker's twenty-one years on the bench of the Federal Court, he disposed of a grand total of 13,500 cases. In the course of this, he succeeded in bringing law and order to a wild frontier.

Another resident of the Belle Grove District was William H. H. Clayton. In 1874, he was appointed United States District Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. He was a vigorous attorney and during the fourteen years he served as United States District Attorney, he prosecuted over ten thousand cases. His record for murder convictions has remained unparalleled in the annals of American jurisprudence.

The Belle Grove District was the finest residential district of Fort Smith. Political leaders, lawyers, doctors, and successful merchants, all built their homes in this area, many of them outstanding examples of the architecture of the period.· The quality of the construction and the fact that Fort Smith suffered no furious conflagrations insured that these buildings, and the character of the district, would survive for over one hundred years.