De Smet’s first public school was built in 1880 by local citizens, who supplied the materials and did the work themselves. The schoolhouse first stood at the corner of Loftus Avenue and Second Street and was later moved to Third Street. After it ceased operating as a school, E. F. Barrows bought it for $300, and L. G. Huntley later purchased it and remodeled it into a home in 1885. It then served as a private residence for several families for many years, and during later interior redecorating, owners discovered the original blackboards beneath layers of wallpaper. In 1999, the Society purchased the home and moved the school to the Society grounds, where donations and grants helped restore it to the days of Laura Ingalls Wilder. When Laura first saw the schoolhouse with her sister Carrie on their way to school, she described a building standing by itself, with windows on each side, a stovepipe not then in use, a boarded-in entry, patent desks of smoothly varnished wood with black iron feet, and a large heating stove in the middle of the room.