Ripon's Little White Schoolhouse moves to new location on W. Fond du Lac St, April 17, 2023. PC: Fox 11 Online
RIPON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Ripon’s Little White Schoolhouse is back on the National Register of Historic Places.
The birthplace of the Republican Party was initially placed on the list in 1973 but after the schoolhouse was moved to a new site in 2023, it needed to reapply.
The application was reviewed and approved by the Wisconsin State Review Board in May. The application was subsequently submitted to the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places, an official with the National Park Service, where it received final approval.
The Little White Schoolhouse holds a significant place in American political history. On March 20, 1854, the first local Republican Party in the nation was formed at a meeting held in the Little White Schoolhouse in Ripon.
Alvan Bovay, the organizer of the 1854 meeting, described the event as a moment of history, stating, “The actors in this remote little eddy of politics thought at the time that they were making a bit of history by that solitary tallow candle, in the little white schoolhouse on the prairie; and whether ever recognized and published or not, they think so still.” This quote, found in Henry Wilson’s “Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,” is the origin of the school’s name.
Over the years, it has been relocated several times to ensure its preservation and accessibility to the public. In 1949, the Republican Educational Foundation (REF) was established to create a museum and education space honoring the history of the Republican Party. The REF moved the schoolhouse to Blackburn Street in 1951, where it served as a museum. In 1987, the Ripon Chamber of Commerce acquired the schoolhouse to promote and preserve its history. After a restoration in 2007, the schoolhouse was relocated once again in 2023 to its current site, continuing to operate as a museum with the opportunity to have a visitor’s center dedicated to interpreting the historic events that took place inside its walls.
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