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Civil War-era school found inside another building

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) – Preservation work has begun on a Civil War-era schoolhouse located just off the city square.

Contractors are working to preserve a red-brick schoolhouse found encased inside a newer house. Enclosing the original building inside the newer building is thought to have occurred during construction on an addition on the back of the newer home, said Connie Hendrix-Krall, executive director of the Peel Compton Foundation, which owns the building.

We are tremendously excited about the possibilities,” Hendrix-Krall said, adding that a completion date for the project hasn’t been determined.

The preserved schoolhouse will serve as a conference room for the foundation and will house the Benton County Historical Society, Hendrix-Krall said.

Monte Harris, adult programs coordinator with the Rogers Historical Museum, said she was excited to see the schoolhouse preserved.

We are working on the best way to preserve the structure,” Harris said. “It’s a very unusual situation because it is a building within a building.”

Harris has been researching this history of the schoolhouse.

The 144-year-old red brick building was one of the first buildings erected in Bentonville after the Civil War. It was built by the Presbyterian church and was originally used as a Sunday school, Harris said.

The building was converted into a school in June 1866 and John Black was appointed the school superintendent, Harris said. She said she was able to find a list of students who attended the school in its first year.

It is going to be a very beautiful little building when it is finished,” Harris said.

Harris said she believes the schoolhouse will be one of a kind in Arkansas.

I don’t know of another town that has a school that early in Arkansas that is preserved, and it was an accident that it was even preserved,” Harris said.

Bentonville Mayor Bob McCaslin said the renovations of the schoolhouse can only add to the city’s downtown experience.

We have a lot of great things coming this way, and (the schoolhouse) is just one more thing to make Bentonville a destination,” McCaslin said.

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Information from: Benton County Daily Record, http://www.nwaonline.com

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AP-CS-12-13-10 1856EST