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De Smet's First School Receives New Roof    

The first School of De Smet will soon be another site availabe for touring in De Smet.   Today the school that Laura attended stands on Third Street, it’s second location.  It became a private residence shortly after Laura stopped attending and was until 1999 when the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society purchased the building. 

The roof of the structure was in bad condition and a new one was needed to protect the entire building from the harsh South Dakota weather.  The wooden shingle roof is historically appropriate and completes the first steps in restoring the structure.  

Next the Society plans to remove additions to the building made when it was a residence and restore interior features such as the chalkboards.

In “The Long Winter” Laura wrote about the first time she and her sister attended school at the first school of De Smet.

“Bravely they crossed wide Main Street and walked steadily on along Second Street.  The sun was shining brightly.  A tangle of dead weeds and grasses made shadows beside the wheel-tracks.  Their own long shadows went before them, over many footprints in the paths.  It seemed a long, long way to the schoolhouse that stood on the open prairie with no other buildings near.”
            -The Long Winter

This structure will provide a unique learning opportunity to both students in school groups and individual visitors to the building because it will be the only original school building in existence that was attended by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 
 

The school house roof during construction.