Glen Rose (Hot Spring County)

Glen Rose is located ten miles northeast of Malvern (Hot Spring County) on U.S. Highway 67. Residents of this community have Malvern mailing addresses and phone numbers, but the population of the area is served by its own school district.

There are two stories as to how the community of Glen Rose got its name. One story states that when a salesman called on the school, he learned that the school did not yet have a name. He suggested Glen Rose—Glen for “valley” and Rose for the rose bushes on the campus. However, a 1941 Malvern Daily Record article states that the community was named for a coach, Glen Rose, at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County). Rose served as head basketball coach from 1933 to 1942 and from 1952 to 1966. Rose was head football coach for two seasons, 1944 and 1945.

The Glen Rose School District was created as an unnamed district in 1927 to consolidate six smaller Hot Spring County schools: Central, Reyburn, Oak Grove, Mount Grove, Shady Grove, and Diamond Ridge. The four-room school building opened in 1928. The district educates approximately 1,000 students in kindergarten through twelfth grades with an elementary school, middle school, and high school.

The district has an award-winning Future Farmers of America (FFA) program. A 1941 article from the Malvern Daily Record noted that the FFA was preparing students for better crop care, the value of better stock and poultry, and other farming issues. Along with rural electrification of the area, which allowed farmers to operate with modern equipment, the Glen Rose FFA program contributed to better farming of the area in the twentieth century.

Today, the community is less known for farming and more for its location on Highway 67 and proximity to Interstate 30, which makes travel easy from Glen Rose to Malvern as well as larger cities such as Benton (Saline County), Bryant (Saline County), and Little Rock (Pulaski County). There is a small store located on the highway but no other businesses.

For additional information:
“Glen Rose Builds Modern School.” Vertical files. Hot Spring County Library, Malvern, Arkansas.

Glen Rose School District. http://www.grbeavers.org/ (accessed February 8, 2024).

“Glen Rose School History.” Vertical files. Hot Spring County Library, Malvern, Arkansas.

White, Norris. “Glen Rose School in Hot Spring County, Arkansas.” Heritage 26 (1999): 76–77.

Ronna Pennington
Arkadelphia, Arkansas