Guy High School Gymnasium

The Guy High School Gymnasium, located in the Guy-Perkins School District complex at 492 Highway 25 in Guy (Faulkner County), is a single-story, rectangular building constructed around 1937 with assistance from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a Depression-era federal relief program. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 10, 1992.

School consolidation in Faulkner County in 1929–30 led to the creation of the Guy-Perkins School District No. 34 when the Guy, Rowlette, Perkins, Chinquapin, and Hendrickson districts, all in Faulkner County, were merged. The consolidated district decided to pursue funding for a new gymnasium at its Guy complex through President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.

The district’s application to the WPA was successful, and a card in the WPA’s central office files notes that $15,678 was approved on March 4, 1937, to “construct a stone gymnasium building and do work…on the school grounds.” Local laborers were hired with WPA funds to construct the building, quarrying stones from the nearby North Cadron Creek and hauling them to the school campus on horse-drawn wagons. The gymnasium, apparently completed in 1938, is a rectangular building sheathed in cut stone and entered through doors protected by projecting gable-roofed porches at either side of its northern elevation. Exposed rafter tails and brackets in the eaves, along with the other natural materials, reflect the Craftsman style of architecture. An inset stage at the north end of the gym’s interior allowed space for performances and assemblies.

The Guy High School Gymnasium still serves the Guy-Perkins School District in the twenty-first century.

For additional information:
Baker, William D. Public Schools in the Ozarks, 1920–1940. Little Rock: Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, 1990. Online at http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/News-and-Events/publications (accessed June 6, 2020).

Faulkner County Historical Society. Faulkner County: Its Land and People. Conway, AR: Faulkner County Historical Society, 1986.

Hope, Holly. An Ambition to be Preferred: New Deal Recovery Efforts and Architecture in Arkansas, 1933–1943. Little Rock: Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, 2006. Online at http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/News-and-Events/publications (accessed June 6, 2020).

Petrucelli, Fred. “Faulkner Buildings Steeped in Historical Significance.” Faulkner Facts and Fiddlings 33 (Spring–Summer 1991): 29–34.

Story, Kenneth. “Guy High School Gymnasium,” National Register of Historic Places registration form. On file at Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas. http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/National-Register-Listings/PDF/FA0865.nr.pdf (accessed June 6, 2020).

WPA Central Office Files, Ala.-Ark. (Jeff Co.). Arkansas State Archives, Little Rock, Arkansas.

Mark K. Christ
Central Arkansas Library System