Dome Gym

[HorseFeathers]

Just curious....was this the only Dome Gym in Arkansas? I don't recall ever hearing of one, but ran across this gym(now "abandoned")..

[MomaLion]

That's pretty cool 

[Nip/Tusk]

West Fork plays in one.

[pairofgators]

Huttig?

[HorseFeathers]

That's cool about west fork. And yep thats the old gym in huttig

[Brian G]

At the time, WF's gym was really neat.  It's not extremely functional, but has held up fairly well for an old gym.  It will be interesting to see what they will do when it come time to take that 40 year old thing down.

I say this because they are a part of the growth in NWA.  They have multiple needs in that gym for sports that have to be tight.  Then of course, there are no seatbacks.

[HorseFeathers]

At one time i would have told you to suck it up and deal with no stadium chair back seating lol. Then hector built their new gym and over half the seating in it is chair backs . . . Anyway B.G how long before we see the west forks and greenlands jump up in classifications?

[Brian G]

They are not really growing.  I don't honestly know where they stand within their classes, but they are not really a "choice" destination for all that is going on in NWA.  That's not to slam them as I think they are happy with their position.  Winslow closing bumped them a bit but there is no development along "old 71/pig trail".  If they get development around 540 exits they might grow some.  But not much.

Farmington(now 5A) and Elkins are growing.  In Benton Co, nearly every small district has leaped a class already and maybe more.

[btownbomber]

If I remember correctly, wasn't the old gym at Pulaski Oak Grove a dome shape. I was only there once, I can definitely remember the strong stench of urine, maybe it caused me to halucinate and I just THOUGHT it was domed

[BigLion10]

Oak groves gym was horrible no doubt had a strong must odor

[HorseFeathers]

I need to get out more often ....Good friend of mine lived out in Oklahoma for a year, and the gym he played pick up games in was a Dome gym. Said even with them mouthing back and forth it was louder than normal, and the other guys told him it was the loudest gym in the area....Just was thinking how much louder a dome could get than a regular shaped gym...

[rheddhoss]

It's a shame to see the Huttig gym in this shape.  I can remember it clean and filled with spectators.  It is so sad to see these small schools abandoned and in disrepair. 

[bleudog]

It's a shame to see the Huttig gym in this shape.  I can remember it clean and filled with spectators.  It is so sad to see these small schools abandoned and in disrepair. 

http://www.abandonedar.com/huttig-school/ (includes more pictures of the gym)

I was thinking there was a state law that if a consolidated school facility went unused for more than two years, the surviving district was supposed to sell the property.  Guess there aren't any buyers at any price.

[BoxNOne]

These are very sad pictures to see. That 350 law has been a scourge to small Arkansas towns. I realize some would be gone anyway due financial problems, but I think it would be well under half of the total that has been forced to close. Schools should be open or closed on their own merit.

[HorseFeathers]

i agree weiner was doing find academically and financially before they forced to consolidate. . .

[BoxNOne]

So was Black Rock.

[Nip/Tusk]

Lesson learned - be careful with your wiener 

[BigCatMan]

The dome in West Fork is a load bearing structure so who knows when and if it will ever be replaced. They have been approved to build a new gym for the middle school but, I believe, it will have no seating.

[bleudog]

Not Arkansas, but here's one that's close:  CLICK HERE

(and whoever posted the picture got the construction year wrong as it was opened in 1970)

[HorseFeathers]

That looks tiny

[bleudog]

Not Arkansas, but here's one that's close:  CLICK HERE

(and whoever posted the picture got the construction year wrong as it was opened in 1970)

That looks tiny

TWSS   


But seriously, the Gold Dome is a multi-use facility with a capacity of three thousand.  It was renovated in 2011.  Here's a different angle from the baseball field:  CLICK HERE 

Centenary is a Methodist sponsored liberal arts college in Shreveport.  Somewhere around 600 students.  It's one of the 50 oldest schools in the country and the oldest liberal arts college west of the Mississippi.  The Gold Dome serves it very well.  Shortly after it opened, Robert Parish (4-time NBA champ) played his college ball in the Gold Dome .

Hey, even Jack White used it as a backdrop for an interview while he was recently in Shreveport performing at the Municipal Auditorium.

[NEark tigers]

Where is Huttig?

[bleudog]

Huttig is in southeast Union County. Near the Louisiana border.

CLICK HERE

[hsindian]

Delaplaine was doing fine academically before their closing. I think they had built a new gym roughly 4 years before the new 350 law was passed.

[BoxNOne]

Article in Jonesboro Sun Sunday about how the town of Delaplaine has dried up to virtually nothing since the forced closure of the school. I guess we should just be happy they didn't put the number at 1500 as was originally discussed when they passed this horrible law.

[hsindian]

If I remember right, the legislature came close to making the number either 700 or 750. I think it was the latter. They caught a lot of backlash because it would have taken away a lot of schools. I think that's one reason schools like Walnut Ridge took in Black Rock. Help keep the numbers up in case they decide to raise the number above 350.

[MakingBacon]

They should make all those Lawerence Co. schools consolidate.

[HorseFeathers]

They should make all those Lawerence Co. schools consolidate.

Never understood the Walnut Ridge/Hoxie thing either...two towns that close....Probably could be a heck of 4A athletic program..

[Oldref]

Looking at those pictures makes me sad.........I guarantee that there is still some debt service millage someplace being assessed to pay for any of those buildings that are less than 30 years old. The debt is not forgiven just because they are empty and it is assumed as part of the district financial obligation of whoever takes them in. May not be much but it is still there and that is happening all over the state when these district go away. Someone did buy the old Delaplaine school and made it into a hunting lodge for Duck hunters.  I drove thru Grady a few  months ago and went by the old school there.......looks like it is frozen in time since it was abandoned. Just sitting there.

[Oldref]

They should make all those Lawerence Co. schools consolidate.

Never understood the Walnut Ridge/Hoxie thing either...two towns that close....Probably could be a heck of 4A athletic program..

I think there is a better chance of the Cardinals and Cubs merging than WR and Hoxie.

[BoxNOne]

+1 on that oldref

[HorseFeathers]

Looking at those pictures makes me sad.........I guarantee that there is still some debt service millage someplace being assessed to pay for any of those buildings that are less than 30 years old. The debt is not forgiven just because they are empty and it is assumed as part of the district financial obligation of whoever takes them in. May not be much but it is still there and that is happening all over the state when these district go away. Someone did buy the old Delaplaine school and made it into a hunting lodge for Duck hunters.  I drove thru Grady a few  months ago and went by the old school there.......looks like it is frozen in time since it was abandoned. Just sitting there.

They "New" gym in Witt SPrings was built literally a year before they shut down the school....So you know it's still being paid for. And that school is like Grady, it's been 11 years since it was shut down and it just looks like any normal school during the summer time...Except the grass is unmowed..

[Donnie Jamon]

Jonesboro Westside has a dome stadium. Or it looks like a dome to me. It's been there for awhile

[BoxNOne]

It is a dome and has been there since around 1970.

[North Face]

For a second I thought that was Jonesboro Westside in the picture above.