Built in 1896 and torn down in 1911, the yellow-brick Newport Free School was located between Third and Fourth Streets on Walnut Street. It was open to all white children in Jackson County. The county did not offer public education to its African American residents at that time. The Newport Free School was replaced in 1912 by a new building on the same site, the Walnut Street School, which served the community until it was demolished in 1962.
From Watson, Tim, and Elizabeth Jacoway. Newport and Jackson County. Arcadia Publishing, 2016