Who Are The People in Your Neighborhood: Anita Davis, The Bernice Garden

One of the intentions I had when starting this blog was to promote the businesses and people in SoMa that contribute to make it such a wonderful area to live in.   Something that came to mind and stayed was something I remember from my childhood.  On Sesame Street they use to do a segment on there called Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood, which would feature different people and the jobs they do.  It was meant to teach children that there are all sorts of things to be when you grow up and they are all important.  So I will call these posts Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood!  Catchy tune huh?

In deciding who I would feature first it was a no-brainer that Anita Davis be the first person I did a post about.  I credit her as the mother of the rebirth of this area.  Now I realize that there were people living here and doing things to help but let's not overlook her impact because it has been fairly recent.  In thinking that through I used the "if, then" approach.  If she hadn't done this or that then would we have what we have here in SoMa today?  The answer is NO. 

I got to sit down with Anita on Wednesday May 22nd at The Bernice Garden. 

We had a wonderful visit, talking about what got all this started, where we are now, where are we headed, and what if anything is on her wish list for the future.  Anita is a warm, gracious lady, and a bit shy.  Not shy in the way that someone is shy when they are unsure of themselves, but shy in that she doesn't see what all the fuss is about her.  She shared with me that having her photo taken is not something she has always been use to but it is happening more and more.  Even though she has become the face of SoMa in a way, it hasn't been by her choosing and she was quick to point out other people that are and have been making SoMa what it is today.  Joe Fox of Community Bakery, Mary Bray with Bray Sheet Metal, Steve Edwards with Edwards Food Giant, Carl Miller, Dr Nayles of Nayles Medical, and the community of quiet individuals that prefer to stay in the background were pointed out by Anita as making important contributions to the area. 

Originally from Mufresboro,  Anita came to Little Rock 25 years ago but was living in Nashville in 2005 at the time of the community meeting she attended in Seattle.  As wonderful as SoMa and The Bernice Garden have turned out, there was no master plan in mind when she bought the Bernice Building in 2004 where Boulevard Bread now calls home.  Her mother had passed away and she had a need to move things to Little Rock so that was the reason for buying the old building.  "That's all in the world it was," Anita said.  But this simple act started a wonderful string of real estate purchases which would shape SoMa into what it is today.  The Bernice Building built in 1923 was her first building, then the lot where The Bernice Garden would be created, then the Lincoln Building from 1906 where the Green Corner Store is, next the former Sweden Creme location where the Root Café is now located, and finally the building which was built in 1946 that will house the Esse Purse Museum.  The purse museum to open soon will house Anita's extensive purse collection and a museum store. 

A community planning meeting in Seattle in 2005 got her to thinking about what she could do to this area that would attract more people.  When I asked her if she went to the meeting with the intention to find out what she could do to this area to improve it Anita shared with me:  "Well just I had an old building in an area that needed some help.  I was also really interested in the "green" movement,  which means to me walk ability for an area, having goods and services so that you don't have to go west and drive in your car all that long.  It seemed like it was just a wide open space.  Nobody else wanted to be here very much.  There weren't people clamoring for any property here.  So it got my wheels turning about what needs to be here."

There are 3 Bernices that are important to Anita.  Her grandmother, the first building she bought in SoMa is called the Bernice Building (1923), and then of course The Bernice Garden in reference to the other two.  The Bernice Garden, built on the site of a burned-out Captain D's restaurant, is a sculpture garden and event space filled with the works of local sculptors and native plants.  Being that Anita is an artist it was a natural fit for the space and so much more interesting than just a park.  "We had to establish something that felt comfortable," Anita shared in reference to the fact that the area had once been a place where people were worried about crime and perhaps scared.  The garden is privately owned by Anita but a very public space at the same time, home to our beloved The Bernice Garden Farmer's Market each Sunday, Food Truck Night on the second Thursday of each month, and many other events both public and private through its event space program.  Not to be missed is the 3rd annual Arkansas Cornbread Festival on Saturday November 2, 2013!  In short, The Bernice Garden is the mascot of SoMa if there ever was one.  While we visited we were delighted by the aroma of jasmine blooming that was climbing up one of the sculptures.  The sculpture uses telephone poles to represent connecting people.  How fitting that we are all connected by such a beautiful space. 

My impression is that Anita Davis doesn't have a master wish list or a grand scheme for The Bernice Garden and SoMa.  When asked, it seems like she is just pleasantly surprised by all that has been accomplished and couldn't ask for anything more.  We talked about what we would like to have more of and what we would like to maybe see happen, but with this part of Anita's life it seems that it is best guided by serendipity and I think that is just how it should be.  I am a big believer in fate.  Fate, and ok necessity, brought Anita to SoMa in 2004 with the purchase of the Bernice Building and that led to me moving into a wonderful area in 2013.  Now that is not to say this just all happened without a lot of hard work, but that it wasn't guided by some master plan but by a need for a better place. 

Thank you Anita for needing a place to put things and creating a place where others come to put things, their hearts, their roots, their dreams, their smiles, their appetites for life and community.

All photography rights shared by Brian Kelley/Imagine Photography