Vacant School Building in AR before Restoration

Old Springdale High School, Springdale Arkansas

Date added: June 28, 2024 Categories:

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The community now known as Springdale began as the small community of Shiloh, located just to the west of the modern center of town and so-sited due to its proximity to a natural spring. Springdale experienced some economic growth in the years immediately after the Civil War, largely through the impact of various mills that were constructed in the vicinity. However, there is no question that the arrival of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway (known as the Frisco) in 1881 provided the impetus for the largest period of economic development Springdale would experience. The concurrent growth of the fruit and vegetable industry throughout Washington County combined with its access to the railroad as a shipping point to turn Springdale into a thriving city by the turn of the century. Springdale could boast of both large produce shipping facilities and canning factories that packed the vegetables in particular for shipping to a national market. Such prosperity naturally brought with it a dramatic increase in population as many came to work in these industries, and this immigration greatly impacted the existing local school facilities.

By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, the city of Springdale decided to build a new school building to accommodate the influx of new students. The site of the earlier school building was selected as the site for the new school building, with the old building to be demolished to make way for the new. By the early fall of 1909, the school board selected the proposed design of the Rogers architect A. O. Clark, a published description of which included virtually all of the features found in the structure as-built, the only exception being the fact that the main entrance was originally planned to be on the eastern facade; it is now found on the southern facade. Clark's plans included the construction of an auditorium, a basement for the installation of the furnace, and separate entrance on the sides of the building for the boys and girls; all of these survived in the final design. As originally designed, Clark submitted an estimated construction cost of $12,000.

After the acceptance of bids was complete, the school board awarded the construction contract to the Halter Bros. of Conway, Arkansas, who submitted the winning bid of $12,414 (the Halter Bros were known for their work on, among other projects, the Logan County Courthouse in Paris, Arkansas, and the Baptist Church in Conway). The schedule called for the principle construction to be completed by April of 1910, so that the building could be appropriately outfitted over the summer and ready for the opening of classes next fall. By all accounts, it appears as if the building was ready at the scheduled time.

The Romanesque Revival was first popularized by the Boston architect H. H. Richardson, primarily through his 1872 design for Trinity Church in Boston's Back Bay. The employment of low, massive, pyramidal towers, heavy, ashlar-faced stone masonry and the dark interior color scheme, including richly-hued stained glass windows, captured the imaginations of the national architectural community in a fashion unprecedented at that time. Entire offices of young architects began churning out new designs for all types of construction that bore the unmistakable stamp of Richardson's inspiration. As the decades proceeded these architects carried this style with them across the nation. By the turn of the century, even though the Romanesque Revival style had lost a good deal of its glamour on the East Coast, it retained its popularity in the South and Midwest for several years thereafter.

The Old Springdale High School is a direct reflection of this phenomenon. The Rogers architect A. O. Clark, himself a rather talented and prolific architect, remained under the sway of Richardson's influence at this relatively early date in his own career. Though he would later turn more exclusively toward the Classical Revival in such designs as the First Presbyterian Church in Clarksville, Arkansas (built 1919), such other early designs as the Bank of Rogers (built 1906) and the Charles Juhre House (built 1908), also in Rogers, reflects the heavier, more massive aspect of the Romanesque Revival idiom.

Building Description

The Old Springdale High School, located just east of the current roadway of Highway 71B near downtown Springdale, is a two-and-one-half story, brick masonry and stone school building designed in the Romanesque Revival style. The rows of round-arched windows, the heavy entrance portico, and the low, massive overall aspect reflect the influence of this national architectural idiom. The asphalt shingle roof and brick walls rest upon a raised stone foundation.

The Old Springdale High School is a two-and-one-half story, brick masonry and stone school building designed in the Romanesque Revival style. The rectangular floor plan is augmented only by a central, slightly projecting bay on each of the four elevations, the southern of which also features a single-story, columned entrance portico. Two brick chimneys are symmetrically placed against the northern elevation. The asphalt shingle roof and brick walls rest upon a raised stone foundation.

The southern or front elevation is composed of the projecting central bay and single-story entrance portico, the flanking symmetrically-fenestrated walls, and the raised, decorative brick and stone parapet above. The stone entrance portico is supported upon raised stone stoops. The two Ionic columns support a tall entablature capped with a bracketed cornice and balcony balustrade. The double-leaf entrance below has lost its original doors, though it retains its original transom area. A large, segmental arch window opening placed directly above is filled with three wood frame windows. The decorative parapet above contains three small round-arched windows, each of which is adorned with a stone keystone and a band of stone trim the connects the spring points of the arches. The parapet is finished with stone coping and flanking stone brackets at each upper corner. The flanking wall surfaces are identically fenestrated on each story, each being lit with a grouping of three windows, with each one-over-one wood frame window being surmounted by a transom window. The only difference between the two stories on this elevation is the fact that the two groups of second-story windows are each set below a continuous stone lintel, while the two window groupings below are cut into the continuous lintel, which itself then diminishes in height before turning the corner and extending slightly to the eastern and western elevations. The cut stone foundation and the spreading roof cornice complete the elevation.

The eastern and western elevations are virtually identical. Each is dominated by a slightly projecting, central entrance bay, the first floor of which contains a double-leaf entrance with transom to the south and a group of two one-over-one wood windows with transoms placed into a single opening in the brick wall to the north. Both of these first-story openings are cut into a tall, decorative stone masonry lintel that extends to the edges of the projecting bay. The two large two-over-four second story windows directly above are themselves arched and set into arched openings that are ornamented with curved stone lintels and keystones. This bay is finished with a central oculus vent set into the gabled parapet above that is ornamented with four decorative keystones. The flanking walls to either side of the central bay are virtually identical, the only difference being that the southern wall rests upon a stone foundation while the northern wall rests upon a concrete foundation and a slightly raised basement. The four first story windows to either side are one-over-one wood windows with transoms, and the four second-story windows to either side are the same configuration, though they are arched and set into arched openings that are finished with decorative stone lintels. Smaller one-over-one wood windows light the basement and a single-leaf entrance provides access into the basement at the southern end of each elevation.

The northern elevation contains a single-leaf entrance placed into the second bay from the west of the central projecting bay, which provides access to the raised basement at this end of the building. Otherwise, all of the openings on this elevation are windows. The basement windows are of the simple one-over-one wood sash variety, while those on the main floor are taller, though of the same configuration, and feature transoms (these are largely intact behind the plywood that has been installed to protect them). The second-story windows are arched and consist of a row of four in the central bay with a single flanking window to either side thereof. The raised, gable parapet contains an oculus vent with the same decorative keystones as seen on the eastern and western elevations. The two brick chimneys complete the elevation.

The interior of the building is relatively simple, though it contains such original features as an original stairwell, virtually all of the original window trim, and the elaborate pressed tin ceiling in what was the auditorium. Other features of note include the original furnace in the basement.

The alterations to the building have been limited to the addition of a second story in the original auditorium, done to add classroom space above. Though the building has certainly suffered somewhat from neglect, nothing significant has been compromised.

The Springdale School Board is currently in the process of undertaking a rather massive restoration of the building for the purpose of converting it to a viable use for the school district.