Enjoy Yourself Before You Join Them, Visit Little Rock's Mount Holly Cemetery

The Dibrell family plot at Mount Holly Cemetery,

The Jenny and I were out and about last weekend gathering many blogable experiences. Like thousands of others after the storm Sept. 7, the electricity in our home was out. The black out lasted almost 48 hours. Despite the inconvenience and some spoiled food, there was a bright side. We found things to do.

On Saturday, we resolved to have a good breakfast at Root Cafe but got there about 30 minutes before the 9 a.m. opening time. So, we drove around Quapaw and looked all the beautiful, late Victorian homes. While cruising down the blocks of Broadway south of Interstate 630, I noticed the gates of Mount Holly Cemetery were open. We decided to pay a visit to the dead.

Of course, I was somewhat aware of the graveyard's historicity, but I guess I had forgotten just how storied the antebellum necropolis is — 11 Arkansas governors, four U.S. senators, 21 Little Rock mayors and four Confederate generals. Wow. As long as the participants are respectful and discrete inside the grounds of the cemetery, I could see that being a great daytime Halloween scavenger hunt. Find the most graves, take photos and upload them to the party's Facebook page.

That aside, it's just an interesting, different place to walk around on a sunny day. The funerary sculpture is wonderful — some of the best specimens of the Victorian period that I have seen. Graves are well maintained, and walkable. Remember to walk along the foot of each grave in such a way that you're behind the headstones of the next row. This isn't always possible in a really old cemetery like Mount Holly because of some irregular plot sizes and other oddities of layout, but if you make a good faith effort, then I'm sure the residents won't mind.

I particularly enjoyed (Is that ghoulish of me?) finding the grave of Dr. James A. Dibrell. I worked with the late Jim Dibrell, his great-great-grandson at the Times Record. Little Rock's James Dibrell was from Crawford County, as was Jim. Mount Holly's James Dibrell relocated to Little Rock and became one of the first deans of the medical school, today's University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. I recently went to work there and found James Dibrell's portrait near the office suite where I occupy a cubicle. A few minutes after the discovery of the grave, I stumbled on a large, brick Victorian manse that I told Jenny was one of my favorites in the Quapaw Quarter. On closer examination, we discovered it is the Dibrell house. It was a very Dibrell weekend.

If you're looking for a zero-dollars way to while away a few minutes or more, saunter through Mount Holly some bright, fall day. You might surprise yourself by having an interesting time. Enjoy it now. You won't get much of a chance after you're in a cemetery full-time.

Rating: Mount Holly — A.