Bella Vista once had private school

Although the area that would become Bella Vista was annexed into the Bentonville School District in the 1940s, there was a high school here in the late 1950s. The Sunset Hotel served as the campus for the Baptist Institute of the Ozarks from 1952 until 1959.

The Sunset Hotel -- which used to sit above U.S. Highway 71, overlooking Lake Bella Vista -- was built by the Linebarger brothers in 1929. It had 65 rooms as well as a huge lobby featuring a massive stone fireplace, according to Gilbert Fite in his book "Bella Vista: From Vision to Reality." Most of the rooms had a private bath, but a few rooms shared a central bath and were used as family suites. There was also a dining room that would seat 160 people. The hotel had at least two successful seasons in 1929 and 1930, but then the Great Depression hit.

When E.L. Keith bought the resort in 1952, he had to replace the hotel roof and do interior repairs before he re-opened the hotel. He only operated it for one season because there were few paying guests.

Keith was a devout Baptist, according to Xyta Lucas, a board member at the Bella Vista History Museum. Every place he lived, he was involved in building a Baptist church. He helped build the Bella Vista Baptist Church in 1972 along with other members of the Bentonville Baptist Church. He also helped organize Lakeview Baptist Church in Cave Springs.

Because of his ties to the Baptist church, Keith agreed to let his closed hotel become a private school. The head master, a pastor from Siloam Springs, had the unusual name North East West. The school opened with 20 students, Keith wrote in his autobiography.

"I told them if they could make a success of the school, I would give them the building," Keith wrote. Although he writes that he rented the space to the school, he also says the rent was free.

The staff included several members of West's family. The operation depended on donations, Keith wrote, but it couldn't compete with area public schools. It only lasted five years.

The museum has two yearbooks from the Institute. The 1959 edition shows three seniors, but more underclassmen.

Keith sold the Bella Vista resort and the Sunset Hotel to John Cooper Sr. in January 1962.

In 1990, Keith endowed a scholarship at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia which is still available.

Meanwhile Cooper had to sink money into repairs at the hotel, the same way Keith did. It was renamed Village Hall and used by the Cooper sales staff in 1967. The Property Owners Association also had an office there.

In 1992, Cooper Communities moved out of Village Hall and into a new building in Town Center. In 1997, The Sunset Hotel was sold to two California men, Larry Wilson and William Mitchell, who also bought the Wonderland Cave in 1996. But the pair never opened either attraction. The building was empty until it burned down in 1999.

Although Wilson and various partners talked about rebuilding the hotel, the land was sold at auction. In 2004 Cooper Communities bought it.