Donivan Church serves as a community center

Editor's note: Last month's column featured the Donivan Church, built in 1935; this month's column is about the Donivan School.

The Donivan School, started in 1884, was annexed into Gravette in 1949. It is believed to have stood some distance from the church, just east of the intersection of today's Highlands Boulevard and Francis Drive. It was an L-shaped building, with two rooms, one for the higher grades and one for the lower grades. According to an article by Billie Jines published in the Northwest Arkansas Morning News on April 16, 1989, the schoolhouse set on the hillside overlooking a holler and a branch of a creek which was headed by a spring of especially good water. The children carried the school's drinking water from that spring until a well was drilled in later years.

Sometime over the years, the spelling of the name was changed, as it was William T. Donovan and his wife who gave the land for the school and for whom the school was named. The school, as was common in those days, served as a community center and a church on weekends, in addition to being a school during the week.

The territory served by Donivan School originally covered 9,600 acres (15 square miles). In the 1917-1918 school year, there were 51 students enrolled with an average daily attendance of 32. That year the teacher was paid $58 per month, and the following year, $65 per month. By 1920-21, the teacher was paid $100 per month, the school term lasted five months, and there were 50 enrolled. In 1933, one square-mile section, 640 acres, was transferred to another school district.

Jines wrote, "Students...attended school in the building on weekdays and went back there on Sunday for church. At different times, the Baptist, Pentecostals, and Church of Christ met there. The building also was the meeting place for pie suppers, singings and the Literary Club.... The Literary Club held plays and musicals once a month...."

In early 1949, an election was held and it was decided to annex Donivan District No. 5 into Gravette District No. 20. Jines wrote, "As with all of the last country schools in 1949, the move was necessitated by a new state law making it impossible for individual country schools to continue without a specified number of students and without a high school...."

In her article, Jines quoted Maxine Holloway who said, "The Donivan School stood for nearly 40 more years....In later years, the building had been used for a barn. In 1983 or '84, when I went over to go inside, it was full of hay. The building had stood for 102 or 103 years and then was burned by Bella Vista (Cooper Communities) after they purchased the land."

Information for this article was provided by Novella Funk Carlton.

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Xyta Lucas is a docent at the Bella Vista Historical Museum, located at the corner of U.S. Highway 71 and Kingsland Road, next door to the American Legion. Visitors are welcome, Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, see www.bellavistamuseum.org or check them out on Facebook.