About Searcy's Old Searcy Arkansas

Yesterday's blog showed the class of 1952, Mrs. Knox's kindergarten class in Searcy AR. There were lots of beautiful children and one of my readers sent me this photo!

This photo shows the very first class that Mrs. Knox had. The White Country Historical Society says in one of their newsletters that at the end of the school year, the Child's Haven Kindergarten presented a program at the American Legion Hut on the Court Square in Searcy Arkansas. This photo was so early, however, that the program was held in the front room of her house.

Girls wore crepe paper dresses and bonnets made by Mrs. Knox!! Look at the intricacies of the dresses! One of the kids said that they were instructed not to get their fingers wet or do anything to wet the paper dresses or they'd have dye all over themselves!

The boys wore appropriate shirts and pants. I even have the names of this group. Left to right is Rose Mary Bradley, Gloria Eddy, Charels Ray Kibbee, Marcia Bagarella, Ronnie Moye, Ann Sowell, Billy Benz, Sherry Quattlebaum and Ernest Salkeld, Jr.

Thanks Sherry Quattlebaum Person for letting me use this picture!

I borrowed this picture from the White County Historical Society News, March 2009. It shows so many cute children on the porch of Mrs. Klyster Knox's home on North Main in Searcy Arkansas. The article stated that she started her kindergarten in 1949 with 12 children. It grew until it had 60 children and she had to add a building behind her house for the school. She operated the school for 25 years so lots of kids posed on this front porch for their class pictures. The little boy with cowboy boots on the front row is my husband's brother. The article names most of the children and lots of them are still in Searcy Arkansas.

The house still stands and is just as stately as it was when she began the school. It has a new owner but is still loved. Here's the way it looks now.

Just looking at each of these little children gathered for their school picture makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. What about you?

The same front porch.

Here she is. Stark, lovely, unhurried, dirt street, in downtown Searcy Arkansas in approximately 1910. This is the Cumberland Presbyterian Church that is across the street from our historic Rialto Theater on Race Street. You could toss a rock from this church and hit our Courthouse. It almost looks like a couple of people on the right?

Now here she is today. She's still lovely but you have to fight through the traffic and the power lines and the concrete to get to her. We're proud of her and looks as if the congregation is taking care of a few problems with the aged steeple.

This picture of the location of Harding University in Searcy Arkansas is fascinating. Trees are small, the space between houses is large and there is this huge building that was Godden Hall, according to Raymond Muncy's History of Searcy published in 1975.

Godden Hall was reportedly torn down in 1951 to make way for Harding University's new Administration Building. Ones who grew up in Searcy can probably name lots of the houses seen in this photograph and possibly still standing. It's a great view of the past.

I found this old newspaper clipping with the title of "The Way We Were."

It should say the way some people were.....what a house! Notice the kids in the windows upstairs and more on the front steps. One thing about blogging is the way it makes you more conscious of your surroundings, your town, the past, and the things that are here today and will probably be gone tomorrow.

This house is not one that I remember. It was replaced by the West Side Church of Christ. Now I wish I knew what it looked like when it was torn down. Was it dilapidated? Was it just a coveted location? If anyone has a better picture of it, let's see it.