The Clinton Presidential Center in downtown Little Rock. Photographs courtesy of the Clinton Foundation.
Is Bill Clinton crazy? That’s what I wondered when he chose the location for his presidential library.
It was 1997, and Clinton, serving the second term of his presidency, announced that his official library would be built on the banks of the Arkansas River in Little Rock. The weedy property — and the surrounding grimy, near-abandoned industrial zone — was a popular camping spot for the homeless. Downtown Little Rock, with its baby skyline and bland architecture, looked like a movie set from the 1970s. The only thing going for the area? The newly created River Market District with a handful of boutiques, bars, and cafés that few thought would succeed.
Clinton and his friends, who supported the former president’s controversial decision, repeatedly swore to skeptics and naysayers that their vision for the twenty-first century would forever transform Little Rock, the city from which Clinton had gone from the Arkansas governor’s mansion to the White House. They were right. Clinton’s belief in the city jump-started a frenzy of big-money investment and development. The library alone cost $165 million to build.
Skip Rutherford, a friend of Bill’s (FOBs as they were called back in the 1990s), coordinated the planning and construction of the Clinton Presidential Library and Clinton School of Public Service from 1997 until its elaborate, star-studded dedication and grand opening in 2004, where U2’s Bono and The Edge played in a cold November rain.
Rutherford now serves as dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, the nation’s first to offer a Master of Public Service (MPS) degree and a totally online Executive Master of Public Service Degree (EMPS).
The Center offers views of a reinvigorated downtown.
“When we started planning for the Clinton Library and the Clinton School of Public Service in 1997, I spent a great deal of time in Memphis reviewing the impact Rhodes College had on the city and public service, how Graceland was a magnet for international visitors, and how the National Civil Rights Museum [at that time] had done a better job telling the story of the Little Rock Central High desegregation crisis than Little Rock had done,” Rutherford explains. “We saw how Memphis had showcased the Mississippi River, hoped Little Rock would do the same with the Arkansas River, and that Little Rock’s River Market Entertainment District would draw visitors like Beale Street.”
That plan worked. Sitting in a 30-acre park, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center, which includes the library and museum, now anchors downtown Little Rock and lures tourists and scholars from around the world.
The building is a shimmering glass shrine, designed by Polshek Partnership of New York to reflect Clinton’s “Bridge to the Twenty-First Century” mantra. But while Clinton wanted his library to be a beacon for the future, it’s actually a time capsule of the 1990s. That decade, while swathed with scandal and even impeachment, seems so innocent compared to the current American political climate.
Students visit the Cabinet Room. Photo courtesy Clinton Foundation | Nelson Chenault,
On a recent afternoon, I took a trip down nostalgia lane to that time when Americans bought into believing in a “place called Hope.” I wasn’t alone. The library bustled with tourists, proving my theory: People still long for optimism.
Curiously, it’s Hillary Clinton who greets visitors to the library — not Bill. A video of Hillary plays in the lobby, welcoming guests to the library and a temporary exhibit of American crafts assembled in 1993 to highlight “The Year of American Craft: A Celebration of the Creative Works of the Hand.” But like all things Clinton, Hillary isn’t just highlighting gorgeous one-of-a-kind handmade vases and baskets. She adds a political spin, telling viewers that the White House is a 200-year-old museum and the president’s home but that it also “belongs to all of you.”
Remember James Carville? George Stephanopoulos? Al and Tipper Gore? You will after a visit to the library’s second floor. A 12-minute film highlights Bill’s political career and transports visitors back to a decade when optimism bloomed even as darkness loomed at times. When the video ended, tears streamed down two visitors’ faces.
The 1992 campaign was a defining moment in American politics and pop culture. No one was wired 24/7 with instant news, social media, or immediate communication. Cell phones were expensive and big and few people had them, but the Clinton campaign did because there are pictures of staffers holding the gigantic monsters. Presidents didn’t appear on talk shows. Bill Clinton did, though. There’s a photo of Arsenio Hall, then one of late night’s most popular talk show hosts, with Bill wearing classic Ray-Ban shades and playing the saxophone. Oh, happy times!
The archives hold more than 80 million pages. Photograph courtesy of the Clinton Foundation.
The man from Hope peppered his library with positivity, but the library has a serious tenor to the exhibits, too. A plaque that reads like a brooding opening crawl from a Star Wars movie reminds visitors that political drama is nothing new. “Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency in 1992, a time of economic distress, social divisions, and a deep yearning for change and hope.” Through a series of alcoves and a timeline, topics about world affairs and domestic policies like education, healthcare, and climate change are addressed.
Don’t come to Little Rock thinking that the Clintons play a Pollyanna card and shy away from the scandals that haunted their White House years. They address the Monica Lewinsky drama and impeachment, which an exhibit claims had “no constitutional or legal basis.”
Bill and Hillary’s political opponents also are targeted, especially then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who pushed the “politics of personal destruction.” In case anyone doesn’t remember the spectacle between Gingrich and the Clintons, the museum reminds them how that battle blazed in the 1990s. Case in point: a quote from Gingrich from 1994 calling Clinton Democrats “the enemy of normal Americans.”
There’s also a sharp jab at independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who discovered Clinton’s relationship with Lewinsky. The exhibit states that Starr was “a conservative activist who had never before prosecuted a case.”
After that negativity, it’s much more fun to look at children’s drawings of the Clintons, a striking elephant sculpture given to the couple by the late South African President Nelson Mandela, a mesmerizing Christmas tree by Dale Chihuly, and Hillary’s sparkly Oscar de la Renta gown from the 1997 inaugural.
Visitors can tour a replica of the Oval Office. Photograph courtesy of the Clinton Foundation.
For Hillary admirers, the coolest relic may be two pages from her notorious 1995 speech in Beijing where she strongly advocated for women worldwide (“Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.”). The pages show Hillary’s red, handwritten editing marks. (Note to the Clinton archivists: Please display the entire speech. Political geeks want to study it.)
Before venturing to the third floor, I lingered for a few minutes in the Cabinet Room, a full-scale replica of the one from the Clinton White House. I sat in one of the comfy leather chairs and pretended to be former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright telling the president my concerns on world affairs. It’s exhilarating to have that imaginary power for a few minutes.
Who wants to be a mere cabinet member, though, when you can be president? Hello, Oval Office!
Velvet ropes once blocked entry into the impressive full-size reconstruction of the Oval Office, but Bill didn’t like the barriers. Visitors now have access to a replica of the “Resolute” desk and can have their picture taken sitting behind it. The original desk was made from the oak timbers of the British ship H.M.S. Resolute as a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes from Britain’s Queen Victoria in 1880. It has been used by several presidents including John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.
Delicate yellow Chippendale chairs, a painting of the Statue of Liberty that was given to Bill as a gift from movie guru Steven Spielberg, and family portraits of Hillary and Chelsea make the room seem homey and warm.
I could have stayed in the Oval Office all afternoon and played president. (Hopefully, lots of little girls do this, too.) Sure, everything is a reproduction, but it may be the closest I ever get to the real Oval Office.
Almost the length of the entire building, the third-floor exhibit space, inspired by the Long Room at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, has 4,536 blue boxes of presidential records that create huge columns throughout the room. The records in these blue boxes represent approximately 2 to 3 percent of the entire Clinton Library archival collection, which is estimated at 80 million pages.
This floor also offers a remarkable view of a transformed Little Rock, rather than the one that existed when Clinton first envisioned his dream 21 years ago. There’s the renovated 1899 Rock Island Railroad Bridge that is now a walking trail, Little Rock’s burgeoning skyline, and ultimately, a more vibrant downtown than existed in 1997.
The Clinton Bridge is part of the Arkansas River Trail. Photograph courtesy Clinton Foundation | Nelson Chenault.
With its glassy brilliance and modernist architecture, it’s easy to leave the library believing that Clinton’s assurance for a better future still exists in America — and the world. The only thing missing that would make visitors have a smidgen more hope? If the library piped in Clinton’s 1992 campaign song, Fleetwood Mac’s hit “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.” Still, I do believe in a place called Hope.
If you go...
42 Bar and Table
With an unprecedented view of the Arkansas River, 42 Bar and Table sits below the Clinton Center and offers lunch and dinner along with a bar that is open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights until midnight.
Anne Frank Tree Installation
The Anne Frank Tree Installation in the library park surrounds a sapling taken from the white horse chestnut tree that stood outside the annex where Anne Frank hid with her family during the Holocaust. It also includes displays about human rights including the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and Japanese-American Internment.
Clinton Presidential Park Bridge
In 2011, the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge opened to create another loop on the ever-growing Arkansas River Trail. The bridge is outfitted with LED lights that offer a glowing display across the water at night.
William E. “Bill” Clark Presidential Park Wetlands
Named after a friend of Bill Clinton who was an avid outdoorsman, these 13 acres of restored wetlands include a 1,600-foot boardwalk for visitors to explore the natural habitat of the Arkansas River.
Choctaw Station, Sturgis Hall
The renovated 1899 Choctaw passenger station of the former Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad and Rock Island Railroad is the oldest LEED-certified building in Arkansas. It’s also home to Clinton Foundation offices and the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
