Anita will surely have stories about dances, halloween parties etc. held in the armory I know I will later.

Now I'm getting ready to head out for coffee with former work mates at the Coffee Society in Cupertino, CA.

Oh heck, I have some time so here goes:

I certainly have memories of the National Guard Armory. 

Here are some facts:

National Guard Armory Building

Like Anita and Harold, I remember events like Halloween parties held there.

I remember going to a munitions demonstration there in the 1943-1945 time frame. There was a demonstration of machine guns doing rapid firing. Also sharpshooter teams demonstrated the M1 rifle. I remember gathering up M1 shells and I even found a live one. I made it into a mechanical pencil years later.

If ya'll want to read more about my armory experience go  here. See the WWII Memories.

The one Halloween party I especially remember when I was about 7 and I was dressed in a Zorro costume. My grandmother had made a cape and mask from a black velor coat lining. I was the cat's meow! The haunted house Harold mentioned was famous for the vat of eyeballs (skinned grapes).

Anita's post

First of all, I will never forgive myself for not taking a photo of the old Armory before it was torn down.  I knew it was going to happen, just waited until too late.  My only memories of being inside it was going to basketball games there.  Evidently there was a basketball court with stands for the fans to sit.  At that time Searcy High School didn't have a gym, that would have been in the 40's, MAYBE early 50's.  I assume the team not only played games there, but practiced there, too. I think I remember seeing military equipment in the building, as we would be walking by going to the gym.  I'm sure some of the older guys still living in Searcy - Benson Robbins for one, would remember and possibly played basketball there. 

Harold's post

Like Anita, I, also, remember that high school basketball was played there in the 1940's.  My brother, A.J., played there and we always went to his games.  He graduated in 1947.  Before I left high school in 1953 the "new" gym had been is use for a couple of years.  The gym was built on W. Moore near N. Elm.  This site use to be part of the White County fair grounds. 

Another thing I remember about the armory was that there was often a haunted house upstairs there for Halloween. I can still feel the goose bumps I had when I  put my hand in a bowl and felt “eye balls”. Of course, they were just  peeled grapes but you couldn’t convince me of that at the time.