Vine Hill Church - Wheelerville, MO
N 36° 48.244 W 093° 36.382
15S E 445909 N 4073308
A former one-room school and country church now used as a community center in rural Barry County, Missouri
Waymark Code: WMMZ3X
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 11/27/2014
Views: 3
Not much can be found about this school and church from a web search, except the usual 100+ hits from "home town finder" types of sites that acknowledge its existence from topographic maps. However, it is referred to in
a rootsweb page as the Vine Hill School, also known as Horn[e]y Buck School, and Vine Hill Church. The photos of the school in the web page are from an earlier wood-sided building.
According to the painted sign above the door, the current native-stone-sided building was built in 1939 by the WPA. Etched in blocks above the door is: SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 30. It is not known when it was last used as either a school (probably until the consolidations of the 1950s) or as a country church.
As with most such multi-purpose buildings of the day, the building was probably used as a school 5 days a week, as a community building on Saturday (which it still is), and as a "union" church on Sunday; the latter being a type of church that is interdenominational, with pastors of different denominations preaching in a round-robin schedule.
There is part of the old hand-operated pump still mounted over the old well, and there are both a his and hers privies in good repair (fortunately - 'nuff said).