Bob CollinsThe pink schoolhouse, between Waldorf and Waseca in southern Minnesota, has seen better days.
Lois Yess went to school from the first through the eighth grades on land her family owned. The Mankato Free Press says she promised her dad she wouldn’t tear the building down as long as she was alive.
When she died at 91, her neighbor DeeAnn Britton, made the same promise to her. Last year she bought the pink schoolhouse and has been selling items out of it to raise money to keep her promise.
“It’s been a bigger project than I ever thought it would be,” Britton tells the Free Press.
But a promise is a promise.
The building has to be raised and a foundation built around it.
The pink is faded now and that’s a problem, too. Yess promised her dad she’d also keep the school “bright” looking.
The school wasn’t supposed to be pink, according to legend. It was supposed to be red, but the red ocher was spilled, leaving a pink pigment instead.
In the ’50s it was painted white, but area residents objected and its original color was restored.
(h/t: Michael Olson)
Related: Estate sale to aid pink schoolhouse restoration (St. Peter Herald)
