The southern two-thirds of this building is one of the oldest, possibly the oldest structure in southern Lafayette County. The exact date it was built is not known, but it is known that the first children to study in it were born in the 1800s. Before being disassembled and reconstructed at Bradley, it stood two miles west of here in the northeast quadrant of the Walnut Hill crossroads, serving as Walnut Hill's main school building.
In 1842, Arkansas' first governor, James Sevier Conway moved into his new home , calling it "Walnut Hill" and established the post office with the same name. From that time until the end of the nineteenth century Walnut Hill was the social, trade and educational center for the area, but with the coming of the railroad, the new town of Bradley gradually became the center. By 1828, the Walnut Hill school had closed and its main building was relocated to Bradley to where it provided classrooms for grades one through four. Eventually, two rooms were added on the north side of the building, but the original structure in which so many Roane Township citizens began their formal education, remains as it was more than a century ago.
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