Deering school bells began ringing almost as quickly as the lumber mill and town began operating. The first school at Deering began about 1904. The school was located on the extreme east side of Deering in what is now Pondertown. The first school building was a small frame building that doubled as a church on Sunday. This building was remodeled from time to time and used for many years. The current Deering United Methodist Church was built using this building.
Later a two room building in the northeast corner of town, which served as a boarding hotel for lumber mill workers, was converted into a school building. Another room was later added to it, and it became the famous three-room white school building that was used until it burned in December 1939. All grades through the eighth were taught in this building prior to 1927. If a student wanted an education higher than that, they could catch the train to Caruthersville, spend the day in school, and ride the train back home in the afternoon.
In 1925, Vicksburg, Deering, Seldom Seen, Little River, and Maple View school districts consolidated with 14 sections of Dunklin County land to become Consolidated District No. 6 of Pemiscot County. Famed St. Louis architect William B. Ittner designed what would be the main school building of the newly formed district - a 250,000 cubic foot two story brick building with a gymnasium attached to the west side of the building. In 1927, construction of the two story building was completed by the George H. Gassman Construction Company for approximately $60,000. Grades three through twelve then moved into this two-story building and primary, first and second grades remained in the three-room white school building. The first graduating class of Deering High School was in 1927.
Specs for the Two Story School Building, as of August 25, 1926, a year before its completion -
Cubic Contents
Gym 84 x 413 x 23 80,178
Main 82.6 x 34.6 x 31 88,226
Wings 2 x 23.6 x 53 x 30 74,730
Boiler 22 x 31 x 15 10,230
253,364
***Courtesy of Ittner Architects, St. Louis
From 1928 to 1934, enrollment in the Deering School system more than doubled, and in the 1934-35 school year there were 1,028 school children in the district. The school grew from three teachers in 1926 to twelve teachers in 1927 to eighteen teachers in 1934. In 1934, the school consisted of the three-room primary building and the two-story building.
Top right pic: Hotel Deering, 1905 - 1938.
Middle left pic: Built in 1912, this house served as the teacherage for some of the Deering school teachers from 1938-1948.
Middle right pic: The Deering grade school from 1950 -1940. The bell in the belfry is now in front of Delta C-7 High School.
Bottom pic: A 1925 pic of the Deering store, 1902 -1961 and the Office building, 1909 - 1975.
Top picture: The superintendent's resident in Braggadocio, 1934.
Far left: Both schools were successful in girls basketball.
Middle pic: Built in 1900, this grammar school served Braggadocio until the present building was erected.
Bottom right: Students who attended Deering school in the 1907 -1908 school year.
Bottom left: The Braggadocio Methodist Church from 1904 -1973.
The two story building was erected in 1927 and was the first building to be built on the present campus. The building originally housed grades 3 through 12. When grades 7 through 12 moved into the new high school building in 1941, the two story building was home to grades 1 through 6. From 1955, when the lower primary building was constructed, until 2003, the two story building housed grades 4 through 6. The two story building is currently unoccupied. Around 1950, a new gymnasium was added onto the west side of the two story building. The gym before this one was located in the same place, but the court ran north and south, instead of east and west, and was not standard size. "The Pit", as the gym is commonly called, is now vacant.
As mentioned above, the lower primary building was constructed in 1955. The school's cafeteria is attached to the western portion of this building. In 2003, this building was expanded on both the north and south sides to house kindergarten through sixth grade under one roof.
Since 1941, this building has served as the high school building. It now houses grades 7 - 12.
Construction on the new gymnasium began in 2001 and was completed the following year. This gym is located on the far western portion of the campus next to the music and ag building.
This is the view of Delta C-7 from the southwest corner of the campus. The building in the left hand portion of the picture was built in 1961 as a vocational building to house the music and agricultural classes. Delta C-7 no longer provides shop or ag courses.
Due mainly to the lack of housing in our school district, Delta C-7's student population has been dwindling steadily for the past twenty years, and the threat of consolidation with surrounding schools has been a very real possibility for some time. Delta C-7 is an amazing school and it constantly ranks as one of the highest in the county in student achievement scores and graduation rate, yet we are one of the least populated schools. Obviously, closing the school would be a horrible loss for our community and the generations of families who have graduated from there. While there is no quick solution for our student population problem, more housing in the area would without a doubt be a tremendous help. Many families, some even as far away as Blytheville, Arkansas, have shown interest in sending their kids to our school, but again, there is no place for the families to live. The school population at our neighboring town of Cooter has increased dramatically in the past couple of years simply due to families moving there whose parents work at the Steel Mill in Blytheville...
As the the 80th Anniversary of our school system approaches, what better time to remember our past and look forward to the future of our school and our community? Hopefully, Delta C-7 will be around for another 80 years.
