— Brian Chilson photos

We reported a few weeks ago that a crowning touch was in store for the renovated historic buildings that make up the new Arkansas Studies Institute across the street from the downtown library.

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Mechanical work at the top of the buildings is being shielded by re-creations of period billboards. They’ll provide a colorful — and probably a bit perplexing — view to passing interstate and exit ramp traffic.

At top, you’ll see a tribute to the defunct Rock Island Railroad and its Rockets, which once passed through the Choctaw Route station now home to the Clinton School of Public Service. Library Director Bobby Roberts (below with a billboard for the coffee company that once occupied one of the buildings) is a model train buff, we happen to know. Other signs include a replica of a period Arkansas travel postcard.

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