As you drive north down the long hill on U.S. Highway 71 at the north end of Bentonville, you can see a little white church visible through the big cut into the hillside that was made as part of the still-under-construction Bella Vista bypass. That church, called New Home, and its nearby cemetery sit on 1.7 acres just southwest of Lowes on Peach Orchard Road, in the same spot where it has stood for 120 years.
Benton County real estate records list the church property being transferred on Nov. 21, 1896, by warranty deed from a Peterson to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and it was still listed under that name on the 1903 plat map. At some point, however, it began to be known as the New Home United Methodist Church. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
The origin of the name of New Home is not known, but speculation is that because this location became one of several rural community centers settled between Bentonville and the Missouri state line, perhaps when residents moved to the community they simply liked the idea of moving to a "new home" and the name stuck.
The church is still used for worship services one Sunday a month, with Randy Featherston serving as pastor and Cheryl Gregory as the pianist, both of whom have family ties to New Home going back many decades.
There is no water in the building, but it has electricity and propane. An outhouse is located behind the building.
According to Randy Featherston, in the early 2000s the small congregation was concerned about what was going to happen to the church.
Being part of the Methodist church district, they were required to pay dues to the district, but they were too small for the district to provide any services. They were afraid the property would be sold to someone else.
Their efforts to obtain ownership of the property were successful. On Dec. 15, 2005, the Methodist Church, for the sum of $1, transferred the property by quit-claim deed to the New Home Cemetery Association, which transferred it in a similar manner to New Home Church effective April 6, 2006. Now the church is an official 501(c)(3) organization set up to provide care of the church building and the cemetery.
To be continued....
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Xyta Lucas is a docent at the Bella Vista Historical Museum, located near the corner of U.S. 71 and Kingsland Road, next to the American Legion. Visitors are welcome from noon to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. For more information, see www.bellavistamuseum.org or check us out on Facebook. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Community on 05/25/2016