Photo by Deb Gau The former District 80 one-room schoolhouse was towed down Highway 19 in Marshall on Tuesday afternoon. The building was headed for a new home at the county fairgrounds after spending many years on the property of the former West Side Elementary.

MARSHALL — Traffic was moving a slowly on Legion Field Road and Highway 19 for a few minutes Tuesday afternoon — a little red schoolhouse was being pulled down the street on the back of a trailer.

The historic District 80 School, which stood on the West Side Elementary property in Marshall since 1994, was headed to a new home at the Lyon County fairgrounds on Tuesday. The move came about because the West Side property was headed for demolition and redevelopment.

Lyon County Historical Society Executive Director Jennifer Andries said the Historical Society plans to use the historic one-room school building to replace a more modern structure at the fairgrounds.

In May, Lyon County commissioners voted to contribute up to $20,000 to help with the project to build a new foundation for the school and move it to the fairgrounds.

The District 80 schoolhouse has moved a couple of times before in its history. It was originally built in section 8 of Westerheim Township on land near the Yellow Medicine River. The building was given to the Historical Society in 1970. For many years, it stood at the fairgrounds along with a log cabin and a blue building made to look like a country church. The schoolhouse was then moved to West Side to make way for the former hockey arena at the fairgrounds.

When it returns to the fairgrounds, the District 80 schoolhouse will take the place of the blue building, which Andries said is not actually historic.

One-room schools like District 80 used to be common in Lyon County, in order to make it possible for children to walk to school. At one point, there were 101 schools in the county, according to the Historical Society.