Education was a prime concern in Otter Tail County from its earliest days, and the county's strongly agricultural settlement led to 289 rural school districts, with schools holding winter and summer terms because children were needed at home for spring planting and fall harvest. In 1869, Clitherall became Otter Tail County School District No. 1, although a petition from St. Olaf Township had been dated eleven days earlier, and St. Olaf then received the next three districts while southwest Sverdrup, now Underwood, was organized as District No. 5. Teachers seeking work took a qualifying examination from the county superintendent, earned from $15 per month with board to $25 per month plus an extra $1.50 per week for board, and often boarded around from one pupil's home to another, while men's wages were generally about 30 percent higher than those of female teachers. Sverdrup Township School District No. 182 was organized on January 3, 1884, and during its first year classes met in John Randall's log house before a one-room schoolhouse was built on the site in 1885. That building was later moved across the road to Tingvold Church property, where it served first as the community's first church and then as a kitchen and dining hall. In 1905, a two-story, two-room frame school known as the cracker box was erected there and remained in use until it became a dilapidated firetrap. In 1939, the federal Works Progress Administration built the two-story concrete and fieldstone building that still stands, at a cost of $24,800. Named for William Barnhard, a nearby resident and one of the district's founders, and designed by architect E.O. Broaten in the Art Moderne style, it brought electric lights, plumbing, a kitchen, electric stove and refrigerator, and an auditorium. The building served students until 1971, when Minnesota's rural schools closed and pupils were bused to town schools; as part of the Underwood School District it then housed first and second grade classes, and later preschool, kindergarten, and first grade, before closing as an educational facility in May 1982. A group of artists bought the old school and 1.5 acres from the Underwood School District for $5,000 on May 27, 1987, intending to preserve it for public and educational use, including workshops for area artists, but financial struggles forced the center to close. In 1999, ownership passed to the Otter Tail County Historical Society through donation by the Community Arts Center organization, and because renovation resources were unavailable, the building was sold to a buyer who promised to preserve its exterior because it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.