McDowell School - McDowell, Missouri
N 36° 49.658 W 093° 47.671
15S E 429147 N 4076045
An old country school surviving as a music venue in rural Barry County, Missouri
Waymark Code: WMHWAG
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 08/18/2013
Views: 1
Just after Missouri was admitted as a state, the number of counties was small, so the counties themselves were very large. Barry County took up most of the southwest corner of Missouri, covering all of the current McDonald, Newton, Barry, and Lawrence counties, as well as some of Jasper County and most of Stone County. As the counties were being reorganized to make smaller counties, Barry county shrank and its geographic center moved. At one time the county seat was in a town about 2 miles west of Pierce City (now in Lawrence County), at a location that now shows no sign at all of there having been a town there!
After Newton County was formed (which included what is also now McDonald County) on the west, the county seat was moved to McDowell, where it remained for a few years. Later, when Stone County was organized, the Barry County seat was moved away to Cassville, where it remains. Besides the ignominy of losing the county seat, McDowell suffered from a tornado that virtually wiped out the town, which was later rebuilt.
A little bit of historical notes about this school can be found at this rootsweb page; but alas, no historical photos, as is stated there. After the school was no longer used as a school, it sat idle for a while. Then in 1961 it began to be used for a new open-mic music venue known as the McDowell Gold Jubilee Hootennany, which is held every other week from October through May. The school was added onto over the years to accomodate a larger audience. This waymark poster has visited the open-mic one time in about 2003.