Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 04/03/19

Summary

The Gillham High School has always been an integral part of the town of Gillham between 1939 through the closure of the school following the commencement of the 1985-1986 school year. Gillham is a very isolated community that lies in northern Sevier County.While the Gillham High School was active, it provided not only educational opportunities but was the social center of the community.The community heavily supported the school in all of its activities. The use of Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds and labor to construct the school also helped the rural population build its own community with a new $35,000 school building that they could be proud of for years. The first time that the new school building is discussed in the DeQueen Bee newspaper, was June 30, 1938. Discussion of the building of the school would remain spotty in the local newspaper through the middle of 1939, when the project was completed. The WPA role in the construction of the school building was to help unemployed workers find work in their community. Since part of the work that was being done during this time period was focused on public building projects, which included schools, the Gillham community sponsored the project and a new school was built to better help in the educating of the youth of Gillham. However, after years of little maintenance, the roof was in need of repair from severe water damage. To prevent such water leaking in to the building from the roof, the roof was replaced with a standing-seam metal roof. The lack of original windows seems to have occurred sometime between 1956 and 1976 according to photo documentation. Therefore, the school is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion A for its association with the Works Progress Administration in Gillham.

Elaboration

The town of Gillham, originally called Silver Hill,[1] was developed because of mining the area hills. It is stated that Silver Hill sat “on the old line road between Ultima Thule and what was to become Gillham. [2] An area farmer named John Bellah found what he believed to be silver on his farm. This set off others to try to find silver on their property, or other locals selling there mineral rights for others to explore, yet everyone was unsuccessful.[3] As the area began to grow in population, other sources of income such as farming, logging, and fruit farming, especially strawberries became the way that the small population supported their families.

It is stated that when the local mercantile store owners broke up their partnership, Silver Hill also began to dissolve over time and that by the 1890s, the new town of Gillham was being staked out along the Kansas City, Pittsburg andGulf Railroad (KCP&GRR). The new town would become known as Gillham after Robert Gillham, the chief engineer of the KCP & GRR. [4]

Though Silver Hill was already starting to decline by the time Gillham was platted in 1897, the town of Gillham was already starting to grow with new businesses, but not any population with school-aged children. As the businesses set up in the town, the people charged with operating those same businesses were actually leaving Gillham for Silver Hill, because Silver Hill still had the only school. Many of the towns people with children would leave for Silver Hill until Gillham constructed its own schoolhouse roughly around 1909[5], with grades 1 through 10.[6]

The schoolhouse that would eventually be built between c. 1909 and c. 1911, would be a two-story brick building with a few classrooms and a large auditorium. It is stated that by 1931 the school added a few more classrooms after adding the King, Pullman and Valley School Districts in 1931 and Antioch in 1932. With the addition of these students the already expanded school was again at capacity and by 1937 or 1938, the school is said to have been condemned and the school superintendent was leaving for another school, though the condemning of the school can not be confirmed at this point in time.[7]

Following the departure of the previous superintendent, a Mr. Clyde Thomas took over as the new superintendent with the goal of raising funds for a new building program. It is through the steady work of adding to the building program that Gillham and the Gillham School board were able to request New Deal Era support in the form of funds and labor from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for the construction of a new school building. This new building would be able to house the many rural one-room schoolhouses that were consolidating into larger school like Gillham during the 1930s and with the thought of potential future consolidation that would take place in the 1940s.

By June 30, 1938, a small reference to the use of WPA funds and labor is written in the DeQueen Bee. It states that “the WPA workers will begin work on a new school building which to be built (in Gillham), next week.”[8] This small tidbit of information was just a teaser to a larger article, which would discuss the project in more depth only a week later. In the article following up the next week, on July 7, 1938, it is stated that the project was estimated at

$35,000, with the Gillham School District paying nearly $9,000 as the sponsor of the project. At the time the project was announced, the crew that was assigned to the project consisted of between thirty to forty WPA workers.The plan that was approved by both the school board and the WPA would consist of eight classrooms, an auditorium, library and the superintendent’s office. The first order of business according to the district WPA supervisor George L. Rector, was to raze the old school building so that the lot could be used for the new school. It was already known that the school would not be completed by the time the next school year started, so the school board began looking for other locations to house classes during school hours.[9]

As demolition of the old school began to take place, weekly updates about the status of the project became fairly normal, as was the case on July 28, 1938, when it was reported that “the WPA workers are making very rapid progress tearing down the old Gillham School building.” Only two weeks later, with school rapidly approaching and the school still under construction, the school district made it clear where classes would be taking place during the upcoming school year. The article states that….

The public schools at Gillham will open the 1938-1939 term on Monday, August 15, and churches and the old bank building will be used to house the classes on account of the new building being under construction. Clyde Thomas, Superintendent, said that the early opening is customary at Gillham, in order to allow earlier closing in the spring so that children may assist in the radish harvest and other farm duties there.[10]

Following all of the rural school consolidations into the Gillham School, which includes students from Kellum, Almond, Grannis, Overturf, Ozark, Womack Spur, and Holly Grove, the opening day enrollment was the highest it had ever been with a student population of 350, up from 285, the previous academic year. Though it was previously stated that churches, the old bank building, and the old gymnasium were to be used for classroom space, an article on August 18, 1938, also listed the former lodge hall as another classroom location though in later reporting, the lodge is not formally utilized for school space.[11] It is in the Gillham News section of the DeQueen Bee where it lays out which classes were located in local buildings throughout town.

The Gillham public school which opened Monday, August 15, is located in the following places: the First, Second, Third, and Fourth grades are in the Methodist Church; the Fifth and Sixth grades are in the Baptist Church; the Seventh and Eighth grades are in the gymnasium, and the entire high school is the upstairs of the old bank building.[12]

After describing the locations of each grade level, it is stated most likely by the Superintendent Thomas, that “being so scattered out it is very inconvenient, but by the cooperation of the pupils, faculty and parents we can make it very satisfactorily.[13] Following these remarks by school staff, it would be nearly another month before there are any status updates on the construction of the school or school events.

It is not until September 8, 1938, that we receive a large status update on all WPA projects throughout Sevier County. At the time, the Gillham School was being constructed in September 1938, the WPA roughly 331 workers, 287 men and 44 women, on the payroll. The other WPA projects that were ongoing at that point in time included road projects, beautification projects and school construction, which included the DeQueen Central building and the Gillham School.[14] At the time the article was published, the WPA had 25 men working under WPA foreman Jesse E. Gross. The school would be approximately 130’x 93’, with brick construction and sit atop a small hill overlooking the town. It was stated that the time, that once completed, “this will be one of the handsomest school structures in the county.”[15]

From late September 1938 through December 1938, updates in the DeQueen Bee are limited to three lines stating that the WPA men are making great/rapid progress on the new Gillham school building.[16] The only exception was one small line, in an October 13^th articles that stated the WPA workers had been laying brick for the past three days.[17] It is not until December 8, 1938, that we get something more substantial when the DeQueen Bee wrote “The WPA workers are making rapid progress on the new school building. The first floor has been put down and part of the petition (sic) [18] frames have been put up.” In later articles after the completion of the school, it is noted that the WPA workers salvaged materials form the old school building that was razed and reused the materials in the construction of the current school building.[19] Following the update about the first floor being put down, there are no further updates on the construction of the building. The next time it is referenced is in April, when it is reported the senior class would be performing a play entitled “Bound to Marry” in the new high school auditorium. But, it does

state that this was the first program to be presented in the new school,[20] leading one to believe that the school was still incomplete at the time of the production. Only a week later, the auditorium would be used again, when it held the commencement exercises for the senior class on April 21, 1939. These are the only two occasions that have been currently found to suggest the building was being used prior to the 1939-1940 school year. There is no evidence, at this time that shows the school was opened in August 1939, except for an article from January 4, 1940, that states that the new school was occupied last fall, meaning the fall of 1939.

With the completion of and opening of the new school in the fall of 1939, the construction of the school came in under budget from the initial estimate of $35,000. After completion, the total cost was just under $30,000. The WPA grant totaled out at $20,296 on the project. The Gillham School Board, the sponsor on the project, with the help of the building fund created by Superintendent Clyde Thomas, contributed $9,154 toward the overall project.[21] Once completed, the Gillham School was able to use their brand new, classrooms, offices, and auditorium space capable of seating 400 people. The town was very excited about the auditorium space as it was “equipped with curtains and drapes and is large enough for presenting plays and other public functions.”[22]

The school would remain an active part in the town of Gillham, Arkansas, through 1986, when the school was consolidated with the DeQueen School District. However, following the completion of the school building, the campus continued to expand. At the same time the school was being built by the WPA, the boys of the Gillham High School began laying the foundation for the Gillham school home economics building, which was being put up at a rapid pace.[23] This was again confirmed on October 20^th and November 17^th, 1938, when articles again stated that the high school boys are still continuing to construct the home economics building.[24] With the home economics building completed the school went to work on a new gymnasium which was begun between 1939-1940, as the 1940 basketball tournament held in the gym is said to have filled it to capacity.[25] Later the basement housed a “modern kitchen and school lunch room.”[26] However, since the 1950s, all of these buildings have been replaced with newer structures serving a similar purpose. All that really remains of the school campus built during the later years of the Depression is the WPA-built Gillham School building. Yet, even the school building was given updates to the windows between 1956 and 1976, with a metal roof added in the late 1990s or early 2000s. The architecture, plan and workmanship is still very evident on the interior of the school where that auditorium still resides with its roughly 400 seats, the transom windows along interior corridors, and the hardwood floors also found in those same corridors. Though many students have come and gone out of the school since 1939, much of the original building still symbolizes both the struggle of the 1930s and the building up of a community with a project that the town is happy to stand behind. Therefore, the Gillham School is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A with local significance for its association with the Works Progress Administration during the New Deal Era.

Bibliography

Baker, Russell. From Memdag to Norsk: A Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Offices, 1832-1971. Hot Springs, Arkansas: Arkansas Genealogical Society, 1988.

DeQueen Bee, Newspaper, 1938-1940.

McCommas, Betty. The History of Sevier County and Her People (1803-1936). Dallas, Texas: Taylor Pub. Co, 1980.

Ross, Jim. “Early History of Gillham School.” Memories of Yesteryears. ed. Ilene Smith. De Queen, Arkansas: Sevier County Historical Society, 1994.

Smith Helms, Geraldine. “Remember.” Memories of Yesteryears. ed. Ilene Smith. De Queen, Arkansas: Sevier County Historical Society, 1994.

[2] Betty McCommas, The History of Sevier County and Her People (1803-1936) (Dallas, Texas: Taylor Pub. Co, 1980). 133.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid, 133-134.

[5] It must also be noted the date of the first school in Gillham is still debated. In Memories of Yesteryears edited by Ilene Smith, a small article written by Jim Ross states, that in 1898 the town of Gillham was platted and the old school building was moved from Silver Hill and rebuilt in Gillham. (Jim Ross, “Early History of Gillham School,” Memories of Yesteryears ed. Ilene Smith, (De Queen, Arkansas: Sevier County Historical Society, 1994), 16.

[6] McCommas,136.

[7] Jim Ross, “Early History of Gillham School,” Memories of Yesteryears ed. Ilene Smith, (De Queen, Arkansas: Sevier County Historical Society, 1994), 16.

[8] “Gillham News,” DeQueen Bee, June 30, 1938.

[9] Other WPA-built schools in Sevier County at this time included the Central Building at DeQueen and a home economics building at Silver Ridge. Silver Ridge was the African-American school in the Red Colony township. (“Gillham To Have A New $35,000 School Building,” DeQueen Bee, July 7, 1938, 1.)

[10] “Gillham Schools To Open Monday,” DeQueen Bee, August 11, 1938, 2.

[11] “Large Enrollment At Gillham School,” DeQueen Bee, August 18, 1938, 1.

[12] “Gillham New,” DeQueen Bee, August 18, 1938, 9.

[13] Ibid.

[14] “WPA Doing Good Work in Sevier,” DeQueen Bee, September 8, 1938, 1.

[15] Ibid, 4.

[16] “Gillham News,” DeQueen Bee, September 22, 1938, 7.; “Gillham News,” DeQueen Bee, September 29, 1938.; “Gillham News,” DeQueen Bee, October 13, 1938, 9.; “Gillham News,” DeQueen Bee, October 20, 1938, 6.; “Gillham News,” DeQueen Bee, November 3, 1938, 12.; “Gillham News,” DeQueen Bee, November 17, 1938.; “Gillham News,” DeQueen Bee, November 27, 1938.

[17] “Gillham News,” DeQueen Bee, October 13, 1938, 9.

[18] The word should be partition, not petition.

[19] “Gillham’s New School Building is Complete,” DeQueen Bee, January 4, 1940, 1.

[20] “Gillham Seniors Will Present Play On Friday Night,” DeQueen Bee, April 13, 1939, 1.

[21] “Gillham’s New School Building is Complete,” DeQueen Bee, January 4, 1940, 1.

[22] Ibid.

[23] “Gillham News,” DeQueen Bee, September 29, 1938

[24] “Gillham News,” DeQueen Bee, October 20, 1938, 6.

[25] Geraldine Smith Helms, “Remember,” Memories of Yesteryears ed. Ilene Smith (De Queen, Arkansas: Sevier County Historical Society, 1994), 16.

[26] Ibid, 19.