Built by local citizens in 1874, the one-room Honey Creek School originally stood two miles east and three miles south of Glen Elder and educated local children until it burned in 1942. Within a month, a newly constructed Honey Creek School reopened for classes, but by 1960 Honey Creek and most other one-room schoolhouses in Kansas were no longer operating because of Great Plains depopulation. In 1950, Walter Knott of Knott's Berry Farm visited Mitchell County, purchased the Iowa Schoolhouse south and west of Beloit, dismantled it, shipped it to California, and rebuilt it at his theme park. Inspired by that example, Harold J. Boettcher, Maurice McDonald, and Harold Hill bought the Honey Creek School and moved it to Beloit so it could serve as a living example of pioneer-day education. In 1976, retired one-room schoolhouse teacher Helen Babb and other former rural schoolteachers moved it to its present site, painted it red, restored it, and established the Little Red Schoolhouse, which became a showcase for local Bicentennial activities and hosted the Kansas Governor and Senators. After later falling into disrepair as fewer retired teachers were available to staff it and give lectures, the building was renovated beginning in the fall of 2017 with donated funds from the Harold J. Boettcher family and skilled work by crews from the City of Beloit and Mitchell County.