Abandoned one room schoolhouse in South Dakota
Spring Creek School, Zeona South Dakota
The school was named after Spring Creek, a tributary of the North Fork of the Moreau River, the closest water source. Constructed in 1920 from a plan in the South Dakota state standards publication for rural schools, the Spring Creek school replaced an earlier school built on the same spot in 1912. The original school was held in a sod claim shack that was part dugout. The local ranchers and homesteaders made the school benches and desks, and guled a piece of oil cloth that was painted black to one of the walls to serve as a blackboard. A homesteader in the Govert area of Harding County, Cora Minks, originally from Ohio where she had been a school teacher, was the first teacher in the school which had twenty-two students in 1912.
Part of the Sheffield School District No. 63 the school was later absorbed into the Bison Independent School District. The Spring Creek School was abandoned in 1967 and moved to a nearby trailer. The school closed officially in 1972.
Zeona was founded in 1910 by H.E. Rowson who led a group of settlers to the community during the height of the homestead years. Rowson became the first postmaster of the town that was named after his daughter. Many of the homesteaders who settled in the area left a year later because of the severe drought of 1911.
The Spring Creek School is a classic example of the cube school that was stylistically popular in rural South Dakota from 1915 through 1930. Located about one mile east of Zeona, the school was constructed ca. 1920 from one of the plans in "Standards and laws Pertaining to State Standard Rural Schools and State Consolidated Schools of South Dakota and a Study of Consolidation in South Dakota and Other States". A sign over the front (east) entrance reads "South Dakota Standard School".
Situated in a grassy field, the school is a large wood-frame cube, covered in clapboard and painted white, with a wood shingled hipped roof. A small wood-frame hipped roof addition is located on the south. A red brick chimney rises from the roof of the addition. A bell tower with a pyramidal roof covered with wood shingles rises from the roof above the front doorway. Fenestration includes two large rectangular six-over-six light windows with surrounds on the east facade, four large rectangular six-over-six light windows with surrounds on the north facade and two large rectangular six-over-six light windows with surrounds on the north.
One enters the school through a recessed doorway that leads to two doors that enter into the cloakrooms. The interior of the school retains the original door and window surrounds and other architectural detailing. The original wood floor is intact.
Located to the southeast of the school is the outhouse of wood-frame construction. It has fallen over and is in a state of disrepair.
Front facade, looking east (1985)
West and north facades, looking southeast (1985)
North and east facades, looking northwest (1985)
