Ark. black history museum rises from '05 ashes (UALR Public Radio) - Three years after the blaze destroyed the historic structure, the rebuilt Mosaic Templars is set to open as Arkansas' first state-funded museum chronicling black history and heritage.

Once located in the heart of the city's black business district on Little Rock's Ninth Street, the museum opens in an area dotted with fast-food restaurants, service stations and vacant lots.

The now-defunct district, however, comes alive in exhibits throughout the four-story museum, complete with replicas of a pharmacy and barber shop that once occupied spots on the street.

At its height in the 1920s, the Mosaic Templars had more than 100,000 members and had chapters in 26 states, the Caribbean and South and Central America. Before its decline in the 1930s, it also had a building and loan association, a publishing company, a business college, and a hospital.

The only active chapter of the organization, located in Barbados, is sending representatives to Arkansas for Saturday's grand opening event.

A Mosaic Templars preservation group began efforts to save the building before the city of Little Rock purchased the headquarters, then turned it over to the state in 2003. The Department of Arkansas Heritage had embarked on renovation when a fire destroyed the original building in 2005.

An 8.3 million dollar grant from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council allowed for construction of a new building on the same site.

On the Net:
Mosaic Templars Cultural Center
http://www.mosaictemplarscenter.com

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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