In 1942, the old University of Arkansas field house, known colloquially as “Schmidt’s Barn,” was disassembled and rebuilt on the west side of the first Fayetteville High School, which was on School Avenue at the time.
The Fayetteville School Board named the auditorium for F.S. Root, the retiring superintendent of the Fayetteville School District from 1904 to 1942.
In addition to serving as an auditorium, it also was the gymnasium for the high school basketball team and physical education classes.
Root and architect J.W. Dinwiddie had tried to purchase the building 20 years earlier from the Fugitt automobile dealership, which had used it as a showroom and garage.
“An option was taken and plans were progressing,” Root said, “when Jay Fulbright proposed to aid the University of Arkansas athletic department financially if the garage could be moved to the campus. Learning of this, the school board canceled their plans.”
In 1939, the university received federal funding to build a new fieldhouse, and Schmidt’s Barn was moved to the high school site and reassembled. A grant from the Works Progress Administration paid most of the $60,000 cost. The building re-opened in late 1941.
In addition to a regulation basketball court, Root Auditorium included a stage, two make-up rooms beneath it, seating capacity of 1,500, two classrooms for music, a large ground-floor room that might be used for a cafeteria, separate showers and dressing rooms for men and women, and a large basement.