All Saints Historic District: From Glory to Glory

Before Hare founded a school for settlers' daughters, he was a bishop to the Dakota and Lakota. Elected Missionary Bishop of Niobrara in 1872, he reached Yankton on April 29, 1873, and Dakota people called him Zitkana duzahan, Swift Bird, for his quick travel between camps and agencies. His biographer counts St. Paul's as the first Indian boarding school in Dakota. In 1874 he asked President Grant to cancel General Sheridan's planned march into the Black Hills, land the 1868 Fort Laramie treaty reserved to the Sioux nations. He died in 1909 and lies by Calvary Cathedral.

What the plaque says

All Saints Historic District From Glory to Glory All Saints School was founded in 1884 by Bishop William Hobart Hare as an Episcopalian boarding school for daughters of missionary clergymen and other young women in Dakota Territory. In memory of his late wife and in tribute to all women, he chose the school motto "From Glory to Glory," which was inscribed in the polished Sioux quartzite cornerstone. When Bishop Hare selected Sioux Falls as the site for the proposed school, the community responded by raising $10,000 in money and land to establish it. This included a five acre tract on a hill at the south edge of town that was donated by Artemus Gale, a prominent local realtor. Other gifts of money came from women in the east, including $3,000 from the wife of John Jacob Astor, owner of the American Fur Trading Company. The original school building with its distinctive Venetian Gothic architecture was designed by Wallace L. Dow. It included the chapel, which was later embellished with stained glass Tiffany windows, as well as classrooms and living quarters for teachers, students, and Bishop Hare. Although the school opened in 1885 with 14 boys and girls in all grades, within a year 43 girls, both day and boarding students, made Bishop Hare's vision of a girls' boarding school a reality. For almost half-a-century, sisters from the Peabody family in Minnesota provided leadership as principals and teachers of as many as 88 girls a year, from elementary grades through high school. Dedicated in 1997 by the Minnehaha County and South Dakota State Historical Societies and in memory of Bishop Conrad H. Gesner by his loving wife Claudia All Saints Historic District From Glory to Glory Girls in middy blouse and skirt or sweater and skirt uniforms were a familiar sight to Sioux Falls residents as they played on the school grounds, skated on the ice rink, or walked two-by-two to Calvary Cathedral on Sundays. Eventually a gym enabled the girls to participate in basketball and volleyball. Field Day in which classes competed with each other in athletic events was held yearly on Bishop Hare's birthday. The May Fete on the lawn, with a May Queen and a Maypole Dance in which all students participated, were also memorable occasions. Bishop Hare believed that girls should be offered the same education available to boys, so laboratory science was a part of the standard elementary and secondary curriculum. Music, art and foreign language study were also available to All Saints students. After World War II, good high schools were available to most South Dakota girls and the boarding school became too expensive to operate. In 1951, All Saints converted to a private elementary and nursery school. By 1986, financial problems made continuation of even this school impossible and the institution closed. In 1996, two years after the property was sold, the first senior residents moved into the restored and converted original school building and the new living units of the Waterford at All Saints retirement community. Dedicated in 1997 by the Minnehaha County and South Dakota State Historical Societies and in memory of Bishop Conrad H. Gesner by his loving wife Claudia

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Falls Park — 1.6 mi
  The falls a town company came for in 1856, abandoned in 1862, and tried to make pay with a seven-story quartzite mill that ran for barely two years.

More markers nearby

• The Government Building — 0.4 mi
• Eliza Tupper Wilkes — 0.4 mi
• Nils A. Boe — 0.5 mi
• Incident at Fort Sod — 0.7 mi