LOCAL ARTIST PRESERVES A BIT OF BELLA VISTA HISTORY!

In the summer of 2006, local artist, Charles Harrington, spent many hours sitting in a field surrounded by the smells and sounds of horses and the shouts of children playing soccer not far away.  He was, in fact, documenting in a most personal and beautiful way, one of Bella Vista's historical landmarks that was about to disappear forever! 

The Bella Vista Stables was original the working barn on the old Knott's farm which inhabited hundreds of acres of what is now Bella Vista.  The barn was turned into a riding stables by Cooper communities in the 1960's  and it has been a part Bella Vista long before most current residents had even heard of this area.  It was here when during early  Bella Vista when it was made into a summer resort by the Linebarger Brothers in the 1920s and then later, when Texan,  E. L. Keith, own the resort for a decade.  These stables predated the Cooper family, who took over the Bella Vista resort in the 1960s and made it what it is today, a thriving growing community!

Alas, that same thriving and growing was a death knell for the Bella Vista Stables.  For more than a couple years now, horseback riding was not self sustainable and the stables had fallen into disrepair.  As the community grew and the demographics began to change from retirees to a more diverse age group, it became evident that a school was needed in the area.  The land that the stables occupied was quietly chosen as the best location!  The Bella Vista Stables, a landmark of Bella Vista's "Good Old Days" was torn down with little fanfare in the late summer of 2006. 

Fortunately, this grand old barn's destiny did not go completely unnoticed.  Just weeks before it was torn down, Charles Harrington had the foresight to take detailed photos of the stables, as well as spend long hours in and about the stables doing numerous value drawings and sketches, all for the purpose of documenting this historical landmark.