Writing group finds historic home

BELLA VISTA — For generations, a plain white church building has silently overlooked the busy traffic on U.S. 71B. It appears empty and a little bit lonely, but well maintained. It’s connected to an old-fashioned cemetery that dates back to the 1800s but is still in use on occasion.

At one time, the building doubled as a one-room schoolhouse, but like many other small community schools, it was consolidated into the Bentonville School District in 1945, Xyta Lucas of the Bella Vista Historical Society said. Students were bussed into Bentonville, and at some point the school district returned the property to the Dug Hill Cemetery Association.

The association is run by a seven-member board that is made up of people with family buried at Dug Hill, member Gayla Baker said. They maintain the cemetery, and costs — including mowing and insurance for the building — are paid by donations. Most of the donations come from families with members buried there.

Even if the building is leased, it will never be separated from the cemetery, she said. The families will continue to maintain the cemetery.

One group in Bella Vista lost their meeting place during when covid moved so many groups online. The Village On The Lake Writers and Poets had been meeting at the Artist Retreat Center, located in another historic building along U.S. 71B. When the center was sold, the group started looking for a new meeting place.

It’s not just a writing group, founder Joan Barrett Roberts said. They are really about storytelling, and the story of the Dug Hill Church is one they would like to tell.

The settlement predates Bella Vista, she said, and the building was important to the entire community as a church, a school and a community center.

It replaced an even older building in about 1936, Lucas said. The first building was built in 1868 at the top of a hill, and the community that built it also built a road to reach it. But the road was steep, and wagons couldn’t always navigate it especially after a heavy rain, so members of the community worked together to dig out the road. That’s where the name Dug Hill came from.

It was moved a short distance in 1978 when U.S. 71B was widened, she said.

Roberts and the writer’s group have already signed a lease for the building although they may not start using it right away. There is some work needed to update the building, including adding running water. Before they begin the work, they need to do some fundraising.

Volunteers have started the work, and the heating system is up and running. One of the biggest renovation projects will be the windows. Roberts is hoping to find a grant to replace the windows and make the space more energy efficient.

“It’s a whole journey for us, but we are hoping to get the community involved. We have never really had a budget,” she said.

She’s gotten calls from other nonprofit groups that want to use the space for everything from a community garden to a performance area. But no decision has been made about who will be able to use the space.

“We’ll just walk the journey. I don’t really have a timeline,” she said. A decision will have to be made about filing for official nonprofit status, but they’ve already started planning events to raise the funds needed.

(Submitted photo) Dug Hill Building, which has been used as a school, a church and a community center, as it appeared in the 1970s.

(Submitted photo) A Bella Vista Writing group is getting ready to update the Dug Hill Building, located just off U.S. 71B, near Town Center.