Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 08/06/14

SUMMARY

The Langley School was a huge part of the community of Langley during the 1940s up until it closed in 1969. Langley is a very isolated community that lies at the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains. While the Langley School was active, it provided not only educational opportunities but was the social center of the community. The school was heavily supported by the community. Sporting activities, before and after the gym was constructed, were attended by the majority of the people in the area of Langley because they were just about the only thing the community had in the way of entertainment. Though the Langley School was constructed in 1945, the gym was not constructed until 1950. Basketball was played on a dirt court on the south side of the building. The location of the gym was formerly the baseball field. After the gym was constructed, the baseball field was moved about 1/4 of a mile from the school to a nearby pasture. However, after years of little maintenance, the roof was in need of repair, and thus replaced with a standing-seam metal roof and the original wooden windows have been replaced by aluminum replacement windows. Therefore, the Langley School Gymnasium is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for Recreation and Culture and Education in Langley, Arkansas.

ELABORATION

The town of Langley, originally called Black Springs,[1] was developed because of “mining activity in the nearby mountains.”[2] As the area began to grow in population, other sources of income such as farming and logging became the way that the small population supported their families.

It is stated by the local population that during the early history of the town, that there was confusion regarding mail delivery because of the name Black Springs. This confusion stemmed from the fact that just 13 miles straight to the northeast, there is another small community named Black Springs, in Montgomery County, Arkansas. It is said that a state legislator named Langley decided to change the name of the small community of Black Springs in Pike County to Langley. The name has remained through the current day. Though this is local legend, Russell Baker sites that the original name was Lindon, and changed to Langley in 1883 in his book From Memdag to Norsk: A Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Offices 1832-1971.[3]

Following the name change in 1883, the community of Langley consisted of only sixty people in 1884. Yet, the community still contained several businesses as it started to grow, including a “grist mill, cotton gin, church, school and a general store.”[4] Only sixteen years later, two more general stores were constructed for this small, isolated, unincorporated community.

With the passage of the law creating the public school system in 1843, commissioners were “created in every township and the township was a district under the control of three trustees authorized to build school houses and hire teachers.” [5] Though at this point in time, the school year only lasted for five months. As part of the trustees’ responsibility, they were required to “visit the school once a month and examine the pupils to see that cleanliness and decency were practiced and that the children had the proper books.”[6]

By 1878, there were still very few teachers being licensed and every district was in debt in Pike County. In 1878 alone, only six people received a teaching license; however by 1888 the number was beginning to climb due to acceptance of the public school system and the need for teachers as forty-five teacher received their license that year.[7] It is quite possible that some of those forty-five new teachers taught at one of the several one-room school houses around Langley which existed by 1883. Some of those one-room school houses included the Punkin’ Center School which was about six miles to the west of Langley, the Medicine Springs School, one mile west of Langley, and the Lowery School, which was located near the Langley Hall Cemetery, two miles to the east of Langley.[8]

It is noted that by 1931, probably due to economic decline during this time period, a large number of the one-room school houses had united to form the Langley School District #47. In 1926, the Lowery School consolidated with Langley, with Temple Grove and Lodi consolidating with Langley in 1930 and 1931.[9] The school that was formed through the consolidation of these districts was a large wood framed building that sat behind the current Buffalo Gap Masonic Lodge. That school burned in 1943 and was replaced by a large rock clad building at the current location of the gymnasium.

Though the school burned in 1943, the property on which the next school building was built was not purchased until 1945 from J.H.P. and Georgia Marsh. Though the building reflects other school building built in the years leading up to 1945 through the work of the Works Projects Administration (WPA), the building was not built by this public program as it was discontinued just two years before the construction began. It is stated that prior to the construction of the building in 1945, that a “crew” was sent from the Arkansas Department of Education and that the building was “state engineered and designed.”[10] Though a few local men were hired to oversee the construction of the new school, many other local men volunteered their time in the construction of the new school once they had completed their own daily work. Through use of the volunteer labor, the school was constructed within a little more than a half of year because the first classes in the new rock school were held in 1945. With the construction of the school complete and their education underway, their recreation during and after school was limited to a basketball court with a dirt court, which was just south of the school building and a baseball diamond which sat on the location of the current gymnasium.[11]

It is stated that as the population began to grow in Langley and the surrounding area, the need for a gymnasium was beginning to be felt throughout the community. As the community began to see this need for the gymnasium, the school district decided it too was a great forthcoming idea. Therefore, they decided in the spring of 1950, that construction would begin and that the gymnasium would be completed by 1951. The gymnasium was completed in 1951, though the rock exterior was still under construction when the gymnasium was first being used for recreation and school athletics.[12] Like the rock school building built in 1945, the gymnasium too, was built using local volunteer labor for the construction of the building.

It is stated by Launa Simmons, who recalled her father’s recollection of the construction of the building that …

“the men of the community would gather up in the evenings to go get a load of rock for the masonry crew to use the next day. They had an old panel bus and had removed the panels for ease of loading the large rocks. The men would load up the truck and head south to the Little Missouri River, either to an area known as Flat Rock or another area known as Red Bluff, both areas [are] near the Caney Bend. They would get in the river and pry up large rocks, load them, and haul them back to the gym construction site.”

She also states that a man named…

“Abe Golden, was in school at the time and recollected the system used by the masonry crew to the large rocks and mortar up to the high areas as the work progressed. He said the crews used an old flathead V8 Ford motor. The motor powered a conveyor belt and chain system that had a large wheelbarrow connected to it. They would load up the wheelbarrow, start the motor, and engage the belt.”[13]

For the students who attended school at Langley the construction of the gym was completely off limits according to Mrs. Simmons recounting her father’s experience at the school as an eleven year old student. He stated to her that if you were caught close to the construction zone boundaries, you “paid a big price.”[14]

During the construction of the gymnasium other school improvements also happened at the school, because in 1950, the school and the gymnasium both received indoor plumbing through the work of John Plyler of Glenwood, Arkansas.[15] With the completion of the gymnasium in 1951, the school looked to utilize the new space for both the basketball team, while providing recess for the student population on cold or rainy days. The ability to have an area to play that was covered from inclement weather allowed for students to have time away from their classroom study. By having a safe and structured recess and playing environment such as the gym, students were/are offered other forms of learning through the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical benefits provided through having an enclosed safe environment to play.

Though the Community of Langley and the Langley School district prospered and grew into the 1960s, the environment for small rural schools had been ever evolving since the 1940s. Though school consolidation has been active in Arkansas since 1927 with General Assembly Act 28, the state really started to gain support for consolidation in 1946.[16] In 1946, the Arkansas Education Association moved to pass a law that would dissolve all districts with less than 350 students. Although the voted failed to pass on November 4, 1946[17], the wheels of consolidation or reorganization in the State of Arkansas were beginning to roll. A new act was put forth in 1947 with minor changes to the legislation though there was no continuing provision. Therefore, school districts having an enrollment of 350 before March 1949 were exempt from consolidation.[18]

Very few districts consolidated following the passage of the legislation in November 1948; therefore, the Arkansas Education Association began pushing another proposal called the Initiated Act, to consolidate school districts with fewer than 400 students. Though this proposal was defeated in every county, the Langley School district was beginning to feel threatened by the push to consolidate rural smaller schools. [19] Yet, as other discussions about school consolidation continued to be brought before the legislature, the community of Langley still held out hope to keep their school and the rock gymnasium.

With consolidation of the grade school in the foreseeable future the school had two options on who to consolidate with Kirby or Glenwood, though the community really wanted neither of these options. Therefore, in 1966 with the school’s roughly $3800, they decided they did not want either of the possible districts to get the school’s money if and when they were consolidated. With that $3800 the school built an annex on the east side of the gymnasium which housed dressing rooms, concession stand and a lobby, and also enclosed a foyer on the north side of the gymnasium. It is said that the school board spent the last dime they had on the construction of these two projects, which when finished, only saw two years of use before the school and the gymnasium closed. [20]

As the 1968 academic calendar was coming to a close, discussions on the consolidation of the school and gymnasium were already a hotly contested topic in the small community of Langely. At the close of the school year, the Langley High School was discontinued with ten high school students going to Glenwood the following year as the legal battle of where and how the Langley School District would be consolidated. By June 1968, the first vote on the consolidation of the Langley School District into the Glenwood School District were cast with the vote being split down the middle by those in the Langley School District 74 votes for the consolidation and 75 votes against. Within Glenwood there was an overwhelming acceptance of the Langley School District into the Glenwood District with a vote of 240 for and 3 against. Still it was not going to be the end of the struggle for the small community which was split causing literal fights and ongoing feuds between friends and neighbors.[21]

Though the battle was ongoing the next news report on the consolidation was in September 1968 after the next school year was beginning to start. In September a petition was brought to the Pike County Board of Education so that a vote could be cast on the consolidation of the Langley School with the Kirby School District[22] on September 19, 1968.[23] The board meeting on September 19, 1969 was postponed because one board member was absent, and they wanted “a full board to make a decision on this.”

With the postponement of the ruling, the Langley and Glenwood School boards initiated a lawsuit challenging the validity of the absentee votes. However, Pike County Judge Steele ruled that all votes were valid, theoretically clearing the way for the Langley-Kirby Consolidation if passed by the County Board of Education.[24] However, the case was sent to the Arkansas Supreme Court were the original ruling was affirmed, finally clearing the way for consolidation.

By the time the court cases were filed and sent on, ten high school students had already enrolled in the Glenwood School District. According the Glenwood Herald, the ten students attending Glenwood could continue to attend the school through the end of the school year, with the cost of their education at Glenwood being paid by the Kirby School District.[25] It is said that the morning following the ruling of the Arkansas Supreme Court, buses from Kirby were in the parking lot of the Langley School waiting for the students. With the ruling of the consolidation the Langley School and Rock Gymnasium were closed.

For the next three years, the Kirby School District boarded up the school and gymnasium and let it sit vacant until William O. Davis approached the Kirby School District about purchasing the property and in July 1969 the property was sold to Mr. Davis. Following the purchase of the property, Mr. Davis opened a skating rink in the gymnasium. Many of the residents of Langley enjoyed the skating rink as a fun and exciting location to hang out with friends. The Davis Family continued to own the school and gym until 1984, when they sold the property to Eddy and Charlotte Ayers.[26]

The Ayers continued the operation of the skating rink in the rock gymnasium and rehabilitated the old school into a bed and breakfast called the “Country School Inn”.[27] Then in 1997, the old school/bed and breakfast caught fire due to an electrical issue in the attic causing the complete loss of the structure but leaving the gymnasium unharmed.

The property would be sold five years later to Jerry and Linda Wilcox who added the metal roof. However, the gymnasium began to deteriorate and fall into serious neglect. By 2011 the building was in need of repair and Launa Simmons and her husband purchased the property in December and began to rehabilitate the gymnasium back to its glory days before 1969. Therefore, the Langley School Gymnasium is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A with local significance for its recreational and educational use in the community of Langley, Arkansas.

[2] Pike County Heritage Club, “Langley,” Early History of Pike County, Arkansas: The first one hundred years (Murfreesboro, Arkansas: Pike County Archives and History Society, 1989), 155.

[3] Russell Baker, From Memdag to Norsk: A Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Offices, 1832-1971 (Hot Springs, Arkansas: Arkansas Genealogical Society, 1988), 126.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid, 37.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid. (It is noted that there was initially a small amount of hostility toward the public school system. It is also noted that this was a universal problem and those opposed were very outspoken about the issue.)

[8] Launa Simmons, “Langley School Gymnasium: Determination of Eligibility” Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, National Register and Survey Files, Langley School Gymnasium File.

[9] Pike County Heritage Club, 38.

[10] Simmons, no page number. In calling the Arkansas Department of Education, the program that supported this process, known as the Old School Planned Services, in the 1940s, was disbanded in the early 2000s. All of the historic files from this program do not exist.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Mrs. E.H. Golden, “Langley,” The Glenwood Herald, 23 February 1950.

[16] Deborah Ann St. Cyr Davis, “An Analysis of the School Consolidation Issue in Arkansas” (Ph.D. diss., University of Arkansas, 2005), 34-35.

[17] Ibid, 37.

[18] Ibid, 39.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Simmons.

[21] It is noted that there were accounts of people’s driveways being strewn with roofing nails, car being vandalized with paint and fights over the school consolidation process. (Simmons)

[22] “Kirby-Langley Consolidation Hearing Slated,” Glenwood Herald, 5 September 1968.

[23] “School Annexing Hearing Tonight,” Glenwood Herald, 19 September 1968.

[24] “Langley School. Board Appeals Annexing Ruling,” Glenwood Herald, 21 November 1968.

[25] Glenwood Herald, 6 March 1969.

[26] Simmons.

[27] Ibid.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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

Pike County Heritage Club. “Langley,” Early History of Pike County, Arkansas: The first one hundred years. Murfreesboro, Arkansas: Pike County Archives and History Society, 1989.

Simmons, Launa. “Langley School Gymnasium: Determination of Eligibility” Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, National Register and Survey Files, Langley School Gymnasium File.

St. Cyr Davis, Deborah Ann. “An Analysis of the School Consolidation Issue in Arkansas.” Ph.D. diss., University of Arkansas, 2005.

The Glenwood Herald