Vine Hill School and Church - Wheelerville, MO
N 36° 48.250 W 093° 36.377
15S E 445917 N 4073319
A WPA-built multipurpose building in rural Barry County, Missouri
Waymark Code: WMMZBP
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 11/28/2014
Views: 2
The topographic maps identify this building as the Vine Hill School and the Vine Hill Church. Information on an earlier building for the Vine Hill School can be found in
a MOGenWeb page. Other than that, an extensive web search only finds the 100+ "locater type" web sites that want to tell you where the building is, what the weather is like, and where the nearest hotels are! The lettering etched into blocks above the door states: SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 30
The painted sign above the door indicates that the building was built by the WPA in 1939. Lacking information from the web, we may assume that the earlier white, wood-sided building must have been destroyed - thus instigating this WPA project. As usual with such buildings, they were used as a school for 5 days in the week, as a community center on Saturdays (which it still is), and as a "union" country church on Sunday; the latter being the type of interdenominational church that had different pastors speak each week in a round-robin schedule.
According to the MOGenWeb site, and the sign above the door, this was also known as the Horn[e]y Buck School, as well as Vine Hill. The wording on that sign says:
VINE HILL
COMMUNITY BUILDING
1939 {Horney Buck} WPA |
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). The outhouses are sturdy-built with the same native stone as the building; so they may have been built under the same WPA project.