Pulaski Heights was named for the section of Little Rock (formerly a separate town) in which it is located. In 1908 Pulaski Heights Middle School was born in a small brick store at the corner of Prospect and Oak streets. It accommodated children scattered "out in the woods" as far west as Forest Park.

During that first year, a woman named Lydia Dice sold five acres of land to the LRSD School Board for a very small sum because she was interested in the welfare of the children in the community. A four-room schoolhouse was built on the site in 1909 (see photo above). It had an enrollment of about 100 students. In 1910 a group of parents asked the School Board to construct a fence around the school since animals such as goats, mules and cattle had become "the source of considerable annoyance because the animals roamed at will and drank from school water pails and cups." By 1918 the community was more populated, and in that year a committee went to the School Board with the request that a new and larger building be constructed. The present building opened in 1921; at that time, it housed both grammar school and junior high school students. Pulaski Heights Elementary was built next door in 1927, and the auditorium and cafeteria shared by both schools were built in 1935. A renovation was completed on the middle school in 1972.

Pulaski Heights library/media center,
between Pulaski Heights Middle School (left)
and Pulaski Heights Elementary (right).

In 2004 a two-story media center was completed; the elementary and middle schools each have separate floors in the structure.

Sources:
LRSD archives.
Pulaski Heights Middle School web site; School history page
"From 52 pupils in 1853 to over 20,000." Arkansas Democrat article by Marion Fulk, 1 Nov 1981.

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