The old, heritage-listed Pea Ridge School building has meant many things to many Pea Ridge residents over the nearly 100 years of its existence.
For people of Russell Walker’s generation in the 1930s, it was the school shop and agricultural classroom – a single-storey building with a large door in the west wall through which horse-drawn carriages, wagons and carts were admitted.
For people like JW Jordan, it was the school’s dining hall in the 1940s and 1950s, with the school kitchen attached to the north wall. In the 1970s, it became the high school counselor’s office; and for people like Brenda Henson, it was Mrs. Wanda Roe’s art class building. For Mary Beard and other younger generations, it was the SEEK building that fostered excellence among PRHS students.
In 2012, an open house and reception was held on Sunday, May 20th to commemorate and celebrate the service this grand old building has provided to Pea Ridge schools over the years and to begin a new phase of its use as a School Heritage Building, continuing to serve the school’s educational mission while embarking on a new engagement with the families, alumni and civic groups of the Pea Ridge community.
Sunday’s open house was sponsored by the Pea Ridge Historical Society and Museum. Mrs. Mary Durand, former mayor of Pea Ridge, is the current president of the Historical Society. The Historical Society leases the Heritage Building from the school and manages its operations in conjunction with the museum across the street.
Anyone was invited to come to the Heritage Building open house. At this time, not all of the renovations to the building had been completed, but Historical Society members wanted people to see the work in progress and hopefully contribute memories, artifacts, pictures, documents and other support that would help make the Heritage project a meaningful success. Construction on the downtown Intermediate School building was still underway, but parking was available at the corner of North Curtis Avenue and Pike Street and along the north block of Curtis Ave., as well as along the new campus driveway and along Pickens Street.
With the open house, members hoped to videotape memories of Pea Ridge School students from years past and have equipment on hand to scan copies of pictures people wanted to display.
Here are some examples of images we would like to find for display in the Heritage Building: Images of school bands, either from the old college band era or from the school bands of the 1960s and later; images of the older school buildings and classrooms of Pea Ridge or of the outlying rural schools of the early 20th century; images of horses plowing, horses pulling carriages, wagons, or farm equipment; images of old gardening or farm equipment (or the real thing); old school sports images; images of old town or school scenes; images from the days of apple orchards and apple dryers and apple processing sheds; and/or images of townspeople and surrounding families.
Some local community organizations already meet regularly at the Heritage Building.
The Pea Ridge Historical Society meets monthly on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m.
The Pea Ridge Lions Club meets on the second and fourth Thursday of each month at 6 p.m.
The Pea Ridge High School Alumni Association Board of Directors meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m.
The Heritage Building is open to the public when the museum is open, currently Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.
Editor’s Note: This column was originally published on May 16, 2012. Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, was an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history, and vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society.
