Children first attended school in a log cabin at this site in 1882, when the Northern Pacific Railroad completed its line through the Yellowstone Valley. As the railroad brought growing numbers of homesteaders, the community replaced the old schoolhouse in 1904 with a two-story clapboard building that reflected their commitment to education and their faith in continued growth. Its bell tower, a status symbol for early schools, carried moral overtones associated with church architecture, and its large front porch gave it a homey touch. In 1904, two teachers taught fifteen children there. A 1916 addition expanded the first-floor elementary classroom space to serve the children of settlers who arrived after the 1909 Enlarged Homestead Act. Children of Mexican sugar beet workers also attended. High school classes, including Latin, geometry, and chemistry, were held upstairs, along with the teacherage, or teachers’ apartment. The high school closed in 1932 as improved roads made it easier for students to attend school in Forsyth and as the Great Depression and declining enrollment made it harder to keep the high school open. In 1947, the grade school also closed and consolidated with Forsyth schools. After the Howard Community Club formed in the early 1980s, the Forsyth School District returned ownership of the school to the Howard community, and the building continues to serve as a place for community gatherings, dances, club meetings, parties, baby showers, and family reunions.