LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- Organizers of a black-heritage museum that was to occupy a historic building destroyed by flames Wednesday vowed to rebuild and establish the museum despite the setback.
The historic Mosaic Templars building in downtown Little Rock, a structure that represented the center of black life in the city in the early part of the 20th century, was consumed by a blaze Wednesday morning.
Museum organizers said said the planned institution could incorporate part of the shell of the structure.
''This site will not be a parking lot. We will salvage whatever we can and we will rebuild on the same site,'' said Heather Register, assistant director and curator of the museum, which was being developed by the state Heritage Department.
She said no archives or collection items were stored inside, and the project will go forward.
Fire investigators had not determined a cause Tuesday.
''It does not look like it was intentionally set,'' Little Rock Fire Capt. J.D. Free said.
Capt. Randy Davenport, an assistant fire chief, agreed, saying arson had been ruled out, along with faulty wiring. Davenport said investigators were looking into the possibility that the fire was caused by someone who entered the building and tried to keep warm.
Flames still flickered in the building's interior and an acrid smell rose from the smoldering debris. Men used heavy equipment to clear massive amounts of brick that scattered on Ninth and Broadway streets.
Built in 1911, the building in its day was the national headquarters for the Mosaic Templars, a group that had chapters in 26 states and six foreign countries. The business provided insurance for blacks at a time when many white-owned companies would not do business with them.
Booker T. Washington dedicated the building in 1913 in the heart of the black business district along Ninth Street. The site remained a cultural focus for the black community for decades, and an upstairs ballroom brought in jazz performers Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald in the 1950s.
The structure was planned for an $8.6 million renovation.
Organizers said they have $3 million in state funding for the building, plus insurance they expect to collect. Preliminary work had begun about a month ago inside the building so little of the state money had been spent.
The Mosaic Templars Building Preservation Society had embarked on a campaign to raise money for continued work. The group had won support from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation to help collect oral histories and perform research for the museum's planned collection. The state Department of Heritage was to oversee the museum.
The downtown museum was to become one more element of a revitalized portion of the city that includes the River Market, the Clinton Presidential Library and flourishing business and residential development.
The Mosaic Templars began in 1883, providing life and burial insurance to members. The organization grew to include an array of other benefits as it took on tens of thousands of members, according to the preservation society. The group helped members achieve standing in commerce, professions and the arts.
''There are lots of people with wonderful memories of being in this building,'' Heritage Department director Cathie Matthews said.
Tommy Jameson, architect for the museum project, said it would be difficult to preserve what little was left of the building. He noted that the old masonry was not reinforced and pressure from the collapse had rendered the remaining walls unstable.
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