| Endangered List: Back To Main Page |
| City/County/Congressional District: • Burdette , Mississippi County (District 1 ) |
| Location Class: • School |
| Year Built: • 1922-1940s |
| Historic Designation: • National Register of Historic Places (2001) |
| Status: • Demolished • Burned Down |
When the Burdette School Complex Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001, it contained five historic buildings. Now, two of those buildings are gone, leaving a 1922 Prairie-style classroom building; a 1939 WPA-built English Revival-style classroom building; and a 1940s Quonset-style gymnasium, all situated on a 20-acre site. After the Burdette School closed in 2001, it was purchased by the City of Burdette, ostensibly to save it. However, preservation efforts have been stymied by the city’s unwillingness to enter into a conservation easement, which is a condition for the receipt of preservation grant monies from the state. Consequently, $30,000 that would have been available to stabilize the historic school buildings has gone unused ($20,000 grant from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program plus a $10,000 match raised privately by the nonprofit Friends of the Burdette School).
In addition, efforts to find suitable tenants for the buildings so far have been unsuccessful, in part because of the building’s condition. The Most Endangered listing is intended to encourage the City of Burdette to work with local residents who want to see the remaining buildings in the Burdette School Complex Historic District returned to productive use.
Unfortunately, in 2015 the complex was lost in a fire and subsequently demolished.