The Renovation (2019-2024)

When the Friends of Dreamland set out to restore the Dreamland Ballroom, the building had been largely inaccessible for over 50 years. No elevator. No HVAC. No ADA compliance. A third-floor ballroom that most of Little Rock had never seen.

Three grants from the National Park Service's African American Civil Rights Preservation Program changed that.

Phase 1: Building the Way Up (2019-2020)

$499,668 NPS African American Civil Rights Preservation Grant

The first grant funded a new elevator addition on the west side of Taborian Hall - a three-story structure connecting the original building from basement to ballroom for the first time in its history.

"Congratulations! We are calling on behalf of the National Parks Service to inform you that Friends of Dreamland has been awarded $499,668..." I jumped out of my chair and ran down the hall to my mother's office. She screamed and jumped out of her chair, ecstatic. A lifetime goal - finally realized."
— Matthew McCoy, Executive Director

Phase 2: Opening the Doors (2020-2023)

$499,723 NPS African American Civil Rights Preservation Grant

Phase 2 completed what Phase 1 started. The elevator was installed, an ADA compliant bathroom was added to the third floor, the windows were repaired and replaced throughout the building, and a central HVAC system was installed in the ballroom.

In 2023, the Dreamland Ballroom opened to the public at full capacity for the first time since Club Morocco closed in 1968.

Phase 3: Restoring the Soul (2021-2024)

$498,000 NPS African American Civil Rights Preservation Grant

For the first time, the work shifted from code compliance to historic restoration - bringing back the character that made Dreamland one of the most celebrated venues in the South.

• The stage apron was rebuilt and leveled

• Replicated tin ceiling tiles were cast from original molds and installed

• Plaster work around the proscenium was restored

• Historically accurate house lighting was installed

• The parking lot was graded and a brick pathway was laid

"Our aesthetic vision is to freeze it in time - not take it back to what it looked like 100 years ago, but to honor every layer of its history."
— Matthew McCoy

The Result

Over $1.4 million in federal preservation funding. Five years of construction. One ballroom that belongs to Little Rock again.

Dreams Come True

by Matthew McCoy, Executive Director, Friends of Dreamland as featured in Brave Magazine

The Dreamland Ballroom has been a part of my life for the whole of my life. Kerry McCoy bought the building in 1990, the year I was born.

Growing up, I took the third-floor ballroom of the Arkansas Flag and Banner building for granted. A big old room. Beautiful? Sure, but ultimately my parents' workplace. The place I spent those incredibly boring days in anyone's childhood, when school wasn't in session, your parents still had to go to work, and you had to find some way to entertain yourself. And be quiet about it. Luckily for me and my three siblings, we had this big, empty, kind of dangerous ballroom to help whittle away those hours that seem to go on forever when one is that young.

For most of my life, I remember the first two floors of the building being intact. People working at desks, having meetings in meeting rooms, long tables dedicated to sewing large flags, screen printers, digital printers, all the hustle and bustle of a workplace. But the top floor was empty and quiet. The floors were not reliable, the safe spots denoted by colored flag scraps, and the mezzanines held up by two-by-four columns wedged into place.

Around 2009, Kerry decided to take on the renovation of the third floor. Unable to acquire a loan due to the unmarketable nature of a vacant, borderline decrepit old room, she founded the nonprofit Friends of Dreamland, dedicated to the restoration of the Dreamland Ballroom. This status made grant funding available and donations possible by other old building buffs like my mom.

The ballroom restoration was a bigger task than anyone anticipated. But its potential was even bigger. In 2012, Friends of Dreamland hosted their annual fundraiser, Dancing into Dreamland, in the ballroom for the first time. The previous years' fundraisers had been held at the Arkansas Governor's Mansion. It didn't take long for the Board of Directors and Kerry to find one very large problem with hosting any event in the historic space - no elevator.

Not being ADA compliant, the liability that Friends of Dreamland, Arkansas Flag and Banner, and my family assumed every time there was an event in the ballroom regularly put my parents into near-cardiac arrest. So eventually, Dancing into Dreamland was the only event we continued to host in this incredible venue.

In February of 2017, I moved back to Little Rock after attending college in Fayetteville and began working at the family flag shop. The ballroom's condition had improved from when I was in high school. Being slightly more mature, I realized the untapped potential my mother always talked about. I began to familiarize myself with the history of this place and this district of Little Rock, and I was blown away. Like many people in the area, I had no idea what a jewel this building was to downtown Little Rock - although I had much less of an excuse, having essentially been raised in it.

A friend and fan of our nonprofit contacted us in the spring of 2017 about a grant that had Dreamland written all over it: a Civil Rights Preservation Grant awarded by the National Park Service. I volunteered to do all the paperwork, facilitate meetings, contact contractors for bids, and manage files - anything to make it happen. With the help of an amazing team, we applied in October - the day the application was due.

February came and went with no word from Washington. I put the possibility out of my mind. Then, in March, I received a voicemail on my personal cell phone. A month overdue, it was a call I didn't anticipate. I listened to the message, eyes widening, as I realized what the woman on the other end was saying: "Congratulations! We are calling on behalf of the National Parks Service to inform you that Friends of Dreamland has been awarded $499,668.00..." I jumped out of my chair and ran down the hall to my mother's office. Fumbling with my phone to replay the message for her, I put it on speaker and watched her face as it registered. She screamed and jumped out of her chair, ecstatic. A lifetime goal - my lifetime at least - finally realized.

Partially funded by the African American Civil Rights program of the Historic Preservation Fund, National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

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