Historical Society is celebrating its 45th anniversary

BELLA VISTA — The Bella Vista Historical Society is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year.

It all started when a Bella Vista Bicentennial Committee was formed in August 1975 to prepare for the 1976 celebration of the nation’s Bicentennial. The group was divided into two sections: The Bicentennial Committee and the Historical Committee.

At a joint meeting of the two committees on Feb. 9, 1976, it was decided to hold an open meeting at Riordan Hall in early March for all property owners who might be interested in forming a permanent historical society. According to the minutes of the Feb. 9 meeting, “the objective was to assume the completion of a book” on Bella Vista history and to work on “the preservation and restoration of places and things pertinent to the history of the Village area.”

The first officers were elected at that organizational meeting. They were Merle Coulson, president; J. Fred Smith, vice president; Jean Pycha, second vice president; Hilly Cole, secretary; and Elwood Huff, treasurer.

The first official meeting was held on April 5, 1976, at the Hill ‘n Dale restaurant, with 40 people in attendance. Bill Buckley, Village Publications senior editor, was speaker, substituting for the originally scheduled speaker, C. A. Linebarger Sr., who had been hospitalized earlier that day. He spoke later at the Nov. 8 meeting.

Throughout 1976, volunteers worked on drawing up a constitution and bylaws, with assignments and responsibilities given to the officers and directors, and committees established.

The society began seeking incorporation and engaged attorney Clayton Little of Bentonville, who had been hired by John Cooper Sr. to help establish the village in the 1960s, to handle the matter of incorporation. He was paid $50, and the society was chartered by the State of Arkansas on Nov. 19, 1976.

The Articles of Incorporation state, “The corporation’s major function will be to discover and collect any material which may help to establish or illustrate the history of the area …”

The early meetings of the society were held in Riordan Hall and at the Hill ‘n Dale restaurant. One of the first objectives was to complete a written history of Bella Vista, which was finished and published in 1980, called The Bella Vista Story, edited by George Phillips.

Planning was also started for historic markers to be placed at historic spots around the village. Seven of them were placed in the 1981-82 time frame, four of which still stand in their original location: the Cunningham farm marker by the Dairy Queen, the Dug Hill marker at the Goodwill driveway entrance, the Linebarger golf course marker at the south end of the Highway Welcome Center, and the Crystal Cave marker behind the tennis courts in Brompton Courts off Chelsea.

For safety reasons, markers for the Sunset Hotel, which was burned by arson in 1999, and the Hay Bluffs marker, which stood along U.S. 71, were taken to the museum and put on display there. A marker for the Wonderland Cave was stolen, replaced and stolen again.

Some members began to think that a permanent home should be found for the society. At the Board of Directors meeting on Aug. 15, 1983, Bill Cates suggested that their No. 1 priority should be the construction of a headquarters building.

After having looked at various options, members of the board met with John Cooper Jr. to consider a suitable site for a building. Cooper reported that land was available along U.S. 71 near the old farmhouse at the corner of U.S. 71 and Kingsland, in which the American Legion was then meeting.

At the general meeting on Oct. 3, 1983, Dean McIntire reported that a lot had been obtained at that location from Cooper Communities, and he presented plans for a manufactured building which could serve as headquarters and as a museum. In early 1984, two committees were in place to see the building project to completion, a Building & Finance Committee and a Publicity Committee.

In June 1984, the site was staked out, and the building was completed that November. A grand opening was held on April 14, 1985, with 250 people on hand to dedicate the new home of the society.

The total cost of the building, site preparation and initial landscaping was $51,482. Donations covered some of that cost, and the remainder was handled with a loan, which was paid off by 1990. All funds came from private sources, no government agency or the POA.

Money from the sale of the George Phillips book published in 1980 helped pay for the building. A later book published by Gil Fite in 1993, called From Vision to Reality: A History of Bella Vista Village, helped pay for ongoing expenses. A third book, called Images of America Bella Vista, by Xyta Lucas and Dale Phillips, was published in April 2021, with all profits and royalties going to the museum.

Later in 1985, a storage shed was added to the grounds. In 1995, a room later named the Cooper Room was added, and in 2015, the Harter Room was added, under the direction of Carole Linebarger Harter, a granddaughter of C. A. Linebarger Sr. and president of the society for 18 years. In 2018, a log cabin was donated and moved to the grounds in 2019.

The museum continues to operate with all volunteers, so all money raised goes to operational costs. Other sources of support have come from continued sales of Fite’s book at the museum and at Allen’s Food Market, financial assistance from the city of Bella Vista, lawn care and printing assistance from the POA, donations from Jill Werner for her homemade jam giveaways, and grants from the Benton County Historic Preservation Commission, the Bella Vista Foundation, and the POA Charitable Giving Committee.

Jill Werner established a gift shop, now managed by Xyta Lucas, at the museum a few years ago, which has contributed to the museum’s revenue. Ongoing donations and membership dues make up the rest of the support.