Living in Hillcrest, Little Rock: A Local Guide

The short version: Hillcrest is Little Rock’s first streetcar suburb — a National Register historic district (ZIP 72205) of Queen Anne, Craftsman, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival homes on steep, wooded, walkable streets, wrapped around the Kavanaugh Boulevard commercial strip. Homes center around $285,000 (Homes.com, trailing 12 months, pulled October 2026), there is no HOA, and the city’s design overlay — not an association — protects the streetscape. The two things buyers most often get wrong: school assignment changes at the neighborhood’s northern edge, and the acreage figure nearly every travel site prints for Allsopp Park. Both are covered below, with sources. The Registry’s verified realtor seat for Hillcrest is held by Ashley Watters of eXp Realty — the independently verified real estate agent for Hillcrest in Little Rock.

What Hillcrest is

Hillcrest began as the town of Pulaski Heights. Michigan investors organized as the Pulaski Heights Land Company — led by attorneys H. F. Auten and Edgar Moss, who arrived from St. Johns, Michigan in 1890 — purchased roughly 800 acres of hilly, wooded land in early 1891, and the first ten blocks were platted in 1892. Growth was slow until a streetcar line was extended up Kavanaugh Boulevard (originally Prospect Avenue) around 1903; the streetcar stayed part of neighborhood life until 1947. Pulaski Heights incorporated as its own town in 1905 and was annexed into Little Rock in 1916.

The Hillcrest Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 1990, with a boundary increase in 1992 — it bundles multiple additions platted between 1890 and 1920, not a single subdivision. The Hillcrest Residents Association calls the neighborhood the “Heart of Little Rock,” a nod to its near-center-city position between the hospitals on Markham Street and downtown. Hillcrest is the southern half of the old Pulaski Heights town site; its northern sibling, The Heights, shares the same 1891 streetcar-suburb origin — see our guide to living in The Heights.

Sources: Wikipedia — Hillcrest (Little Rock) · Arkansas Historic Preservation Program — Hillcrest context study · Hillcrest Residents Association

The homes: a streetcar suburb’s architecture

The district’s significance rests on houses built from the early 1890s to 1940 — examples of virtually every style popular in Little Rock from the turn of the century to World War II, from modest builders’ versions to architect-designed homes associated with Charles L. Thompson. The National Register listing documents Classical and Colonial Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, Tudor Revival, Queen Anne, Prairie, American Foursquare and pyramid cottages. The Retan House (1893) is the district’s lone full-fledged Queen Anne. In the southeast corner, Midland Hills (platted 1908–1911) was the first Little Rock addition to abandon the grid for curvilinear streets that follow the terrain — and terrain is a defining trait here: steep, wooded, hilly streets where the Ouachita foothills begin, nothing like the flat districts east of downtown. Current listings reflect the stock: homes built in 1913, 1918 and the 1930s, marketed as Craftsman, Craftsman-Tudor bungalow and cottage.

On price: according to Homes.com data pulled in October 2026, the trailing-12-month median sale price in Hillcrest was $285,000 at about $183 per square foot, across 194 sales — but a century-old housing stock varies enormously by street and condition, so treat the median as a starting point. For the full numbers — price breakdowns, the tax math and a second data source — see the Hillcrest real estate fact page.

Sources: AHPP — Hillcrest context study · Homes.com — Hillcrest neighborhood

Kavanaugh Boulevard: daily life

The commercial core runs along Kavanaugh Boulevard, the old trolley route, with locally owned shops, restaurants, banks, a post office and churches within walking distance of most homes. The Hillcrest Farmers Market sets up at 2200 Kavanaugh, in the Pulaski Heights Baptist Church lot — a volunteer-run outreach ministry of the church whose vendors sell what they grow or produce (“no peddlers”). It runs Saturday mornings year-round; the market’s listing shows 8:00 AM–12:00 PM, while its own description gives 7–11 AM in spring and summer and 8–11 AM from October to April. Each fall, the Hillcrest Merchants Association closes Kavanaugh for HarvestFest, the neighborhood’s street festival — the 32nd annual edition was held on October 17, 2026, centered on the 2900 block, with proceeds benefiting The Allen School. Hillcrest Hall, at 1501 Kavanaugh, serves as the community hall, and named neighborhood fixtures include HAM Market, a deli and butcher at 2807 Kavanaugh, and the Hill Station restaurant and bar.

Sources: Hillcrest Residents Association · Hillcrest Farmers Market · Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau — HarvestFest

Allsopp Park and the outdoors

Allsopp Park winds along Hillcrest’s northern edge — two steep ravines, a creek, overlooks toward downtown and the Arkansas River, tennis courts, a playground, a baseball/softball field and a picnic pavilion, on land the neighborhood’s original developers deeded to the city because the terrain was unbuildable. One correction worth making plainly: nearly every travel source calls Allsopp a 75-acre park, but the City of Little Rock’s own park assessment lists it at 150.0 acres with 8.6 miles of trails and more than 400 feet of elevation change. The city’s figure is the official one, and it’s the figure we use. Park histories record that the city purchased the land in 1927 and partly implemented a 1931 master plan by landscape architect John Nolen. The smaller Crest Park fills in green space inside the neighborhood.

Sources: City of Little Rock — Park Classifications and Land Needs Assessment · Hillcrest Residents Association — About Us

Schools: confirm the exact address

Hillcrest is in the Little Rock School District, and the core assignment is Pulaski Heights Elementary (K–5), Pulaski Heights Middle School (6–8) and Little Rock Central High School (9–12) — Central’s published feeder pattern includes both Pulaski Heights schools. But the assignment is not uniform across the neighborhood: a listing at 1222 N Harrison Street, on the northern edge, shows Forest Park Elementary as the assigned elementary school, with Pulaski Heights Middle and Central High. Proximity is not assignment, either — Hall High School sits physically closer to parts of Hillcrest than Central, but Central is the assigned high school. LRSD also redrew its high-school attendance zones in 2026 ahead of the new Little Rock West High School, scheduled to open in fall 2027. Verify any specific address with LRSD before you write an offer.

Private options sit in and around the neighborhood: Mount St. Mary Academy, the private Catholic all-girls high school at 3224 Kavanaugh — founded in 1851, on this site since 1908, and described by the Encyclopedia of Arkansas as the state’s oldest educational institution still in operation — and Our Lady of the Holy Souls School (PK–8) at 1001 N Tyler Street. Catholic High School for Boys is about a mile away, and the LRSD magnet Forest Heights STEM Academy (K–8, application-based) is roughly 0.6 miles from Hillcrest addresses.

Sources: Redfin — Hillcrest listing school assignments · Encyclopedia of Arkansas — Mount St. Mary Academy

Costs, taxes — and the HOA that isn’t

There is no mandatory, neighborhood-wide HOA or POA for Hillcrest, and no published neighborhood dues — any source that quotes you a Hillcrest HOA fee is inventing it. The Hillcrest Residents Association is a voluntary membership association (it meets on the second Monday of each month and does not publish a dues amount). What regulates building instead is the Hillcrest Design Overlay District, a City of Little Rock zoning overlay in effect since July 17, 2007, which governs design and scale, parking, signage, landscaping and streetscapes for new development and exterior-improvement permits. Note the precision: Hillcrest’s National Register listing is honorary at the federal level — the overlay, not the listing, is what reviews your exterior plans.

Property tax is the real carrying cost. The combined millage for Hillcrest addresses is 70.10 mills, which works out to roughly 1.40% of a home’s market value per year — on a home at the $285,000 median sale price, that’s about $4,000 a year.

Sources: City of Little Rock — Hillcrest Design Overlay District · Hillcrest Residents Association

Who Hillcrest fits — and who it doesn’t

Hillcrest fits buyers who want a walkable, historic streetcar neighborhood: porches and sidewalks, coffee and groceries on Kavanaugh, trails at the end of the street, and a workable commute — UAMS is about 1.1 miles away and downtown roughly 3 miles. It fits people who like a century of architecture and don’t mind that no two houses match. It is a poor fit if you want new construction, a large flat lot, or a master-planned amenity package — there is no HOA running pools and gates here. It’s also a poor fit if you need a guaranteed school assignment without checking the address, or if your renovation plans can’t live within design-overlay review. And a piece of neighborhood trivia that captures the place: Bill and Hillary Clinton lived in a small Hillcrest house from 1977 to 1979, while he was Arkansas Attorney General — Hillcrest has been Little Rock’s professional-class front porch for a long time.

The verified local expert for Hillcrest

Neighborhood Registry verifies one realtor per neighborhood against the state license record. For Hillcrest, that realtor is Ashley Watters of eXp Realty — an eXp ICON Agent, ABR® and MRP® — and she is the independently verified real estate agent for Hillcrest in Little Rock: we checked her Arkansas Real Estate Commission license directly against the public record (here’s how license verification works). Her Registry profile carries her Hillcrest service details, and the Hillcrest neighborhood page tracks the seat and the rest of the verified team for the area — part of the Registry’s Little Rock coverage.

Frequently asked questions

What schools is Hillcrest zoned for?

Hillcrest is in the Little Rock School District. Most addresses are assigned to Pulaski Heights Elementary, Pulaski Heights Middle School and Little Rock Central High School — but the northern edge can be assigned to Forest Park Elementary instead, and LRSD redrew its high-school zones in 2026. Confirm any specific address with LRSD before you buy.

How much do homes cost in Hillcrest?

According to Homes.com data pulled in October 2026 (trailing 12 months), the median sale price in Hillcrest was $285,000 at about $183 per square foot, across 194 sales. Historic homes vary widely by street, size and condition.

Does Hillcrest have an HOA?

No. Hillcrest has no mandatory neighborhood HOA or POA and no neighborhood-wide dues. The Hillcrest Residents Association is voluntary, and design is regulated instead by the city’s Hillcrest Design Overlay District, in place since 2007.

How big is Allsopp Park?

The City of Little Rock’s park assessment lists Allsopp Park at 150 acres with 8.6 miles of trails. Most travel sites repeat a 75-acre figure; the city’s own assessment is the official source, and it’s the figure we use.

Who is the verified realtor for Hillcrest?

Ashley Watters of eXp Realty — an eXp ICON Agent with ABR® and MRP® designations — holds the verified realtor seat for Hillcrest on Neighborhood Registry; her license was checked directly against the Arkansas Real Estate Commission’s public record.