Time is Running Out for Old County Line School

By Royce Armstrong
After years of neglect, time may finally be running out for the old County Line School.
Without some immediate help, the one room school building, sitting on the north side of the Lucedale City Park, may soon deteriorate into little more than a distant memory in faded photos. The rapidly deteriorating 127-year-old building desperately needs repair and there seems to be little community interest.
“It has been years since I have been in the building,” Gail Gill, a former president of the Lucedale Garden Club said. “The last time I was inside, it was in pretty good shape. But, with the roof the way it is, I would guess that it is not in very good shape now.”
The Lucedale Garden Club is the conservator for the pre-George County structure. The club recently voted to convey the property to the City of Lucedale.
Aldermen are not sure that they want it.
“What are we going to do with it?” Alderman Jessie Underwood wanted to know when Mayor Dayton Whites announced the garden club’s proposed donation at a recent city meeting. “What is it going to take to fix it up?”
According to Gill, she does not believe anyone has been in the building for years, perhaps as many as 10 to 15 years. There are locks on the door, but she does not know if any of the Garden Club members have keys.
What is known, Lucedale Public Works Director Lavell Henderson said, is that the roof needs to be replaced, as well as some of the exterior siding boards. Henderson has not been inside the building. He does not know how much the interior walls, floor, sills or rafters have been damaged by weather and time. Henderson estimated the repairs for what he can see from the outside, including painting, could run around $10,000.
The Garden Club agreed to take charge of the building in the mid-1980s. For the next four or five years, Gill said, the club worked to plant flowers around the building. Period artifacts were collected and borrowed for display inside.
The project was plagued with vandalism, Gill said. At one point the club spent $700 to install an alarm system to discourage the vandals.
“That didn’t work either,” Gill said. “They dismantled the alarm system within three months. Vandals kept breaking in through the windows. The old desks and furniture inside were either stolen or destroyed. For a long time my husband and I would drive by in the evenings to check the windows.”
The Garden Club members eventually became discouraged and stopped spending time or money on the project. The building has basically stood unattended for the past 20 years, according to Gill.
The old one room school house was constructed about 1880, and was originally named the Tyra Evans School, according to a 1969 article written by Gin Grissom for the George County Times. That was 21 years before the City of Lucedale was incorporated and 30 years prior to George County being organized. The building is constructed from heart pine.
The building stood on what was then the Greene and Jackson county line near Evanston. It was built on a 40 acre tract owned by Lamb Davis along a road running from Evanston to Crossroads.
The school was in operation from 1880 until 1924. During the first year, 39 students attended. At the time it was the only school between Pascagoula and Leakesville. The students had names familiar in George County yet today. Names like Frye, Davis, Jordan, Pipkins, Eubanks, Havard, Ward, Walters, Mallette and Cowart.
Aldermen are hopeful that descendents of these early students will step forward, form a benevolent association and work to preserve this piece of their heritage. Or, that some other individual or organization, will agree to help maintain the building.
During the 44 years the building served as a school, it also doubled as a Baptist church. According to the 1969 article, the preachers from the various Baptist churches would take turns holding services in the building.
In 1969, Harrell Tanner, on whose property the school then stood, donated the building to the Lucedale Lions Club. The Lions Club moved it to its present location in the City Park.
Attempts to get the building designated as a historic site, eligible for renovation grant money, have been unsuccessful.
“The reason that we could not get it designated as a historical site,” Gail Gill, a former president of the Lucedale Garden Club said, “is that we were told it had been moved one time too many.”
The garden club has had enough. Now, the city must decide if it wants to try and preserve this unique piece of George County history.
Local Reporter Royce Armstrong may be reached at rarmstrong@hughes.net or by telephone at (601) 766-9624.