South Dakota School for the Blind

Built in 1900. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

From the record

“The former South Dakota School for the Blind campus is located on Coteau Street in Gary, South Dakota. The school served as a specialized facility for educating the state's blind children.”
Wikipedia article South Dakota School for the Blind, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 10 National Register listings published here for Deuel County · listed in 1988 · category: District · built in 1900.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Coteau and Third Sts., Gary, 57237
When was it listed? May 1988
Category. district
City. Gary city
When was it built? 1900
National Register reference number. 88000570 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

14 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of South Dakota School for the Blind between 2000 and 2020, burning about 134 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	10
Debris and open burning	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	1
Smoking	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
23 August 2012	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	15 acres	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	GARY FIRE DEPT
21 August 2012	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	30 acres	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	CRAIG MAGEDANZ
28 July 2012	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	GARY
25 June 2000	Debris and open burning	6.0 acres	Gary Volunteer Fire Department	HOVEY
14 June 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	EDGEWATER FIRE
15 May 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
4 April 2000	Smoking	7.0 acres	Gary Volunteer Fire Department	NEWTSON
25 April 2000	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Gary Volunteer Fire Department	FAIRCHILD

Every fire recorded in Deuel County

Storms near this property

22 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gary, the town this property stands in, in 22 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 12 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 2022	Tornado (EF2)	Gary	1 hurt	One mile south of Gary, SD a farm sustained significant tornado damage. The home on the property lost the entire roof, along with most of the external walls on the main floor of the house. Only a portion of the internal walls remained standing. The resident home\|at the time was able to make it to the basement, however did sustain minor injuries when a refrigerator from the main floor fell down through the ceiling. The attached garage was completely blown off the foundation, and the pickup in the garage was pushed at least 6 feet from where it was originally parked. Nearby outbuildings sustained roof damage, including a hole in one roof that was likely caused from flying debris. The tornado continued to track north northeast of the farm into an open corn stubble field. Rotation was noted in the stubble. The debris track was spread across the field with large pieces of wood and other construction materials pierced vertically into the ground. Further to the north northeast a semi was turned 180 degrees and flipped\|on its side. The debris path continued across 180th Street and was last noted in a tree grove approximately 0.3 miles from the residence. The resident also noted that the family dog was seen being swept out of the house during the tornado, but was later \|found safe with only minor injuries after walking to a neighbor's farm about one mile away.
June 2025	Tornado (EF0)	Gary	-	A brief, short lived tornado touched down in an open field.
May 2023	Hail	Gary	-	A trained spotter 6 miles north of Gary reported that the combination of wind and hail damaged beans crops and the plants in his garden.
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Gary	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts, measuring 102 mph by a personal weather station, also downed trees in the area.
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Gary	-	Wind estimated at 70 mph brought down three large spruce trees, and a large limb fell onto a vehicle. Some light farm equipment was knocked over, and a steel garden shed was blown into the street.
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Gary	-	A few branches were downed by severe winds.
May 2022	Tornado (EF1)	Gary	-	A residence 2 miles northwest of Gary, SD had a barn roof damaged and a horse trailer rolled multiple times. A second residence, about 3 miles northwest of Gary, had a track of damage through their farm yard. An ash tree snapped at the trunk and fell on to the corner of the house. A single stall garage, which was bolted to the foundation, was lifted off the foundation and overturned. The vehicle in the garage was not damaged. A second garage to the north lost two thirds of its roof panels. Another machine shed\|had a portion of the south wall pushed in. All debris from buildings was lofted to the northeast. A mostly empty grain bin was also ripped from the foundation and tossed across 485th Ave and into the neighboring field, coming to rest about 200 yards to\|the northeast. Residents were without commercial power for two days.
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Gary	-	Estimated 70 mph winds damaged trees.
August 2014	Tornado (EF0)	Gary	-	The tornado touched down on the north shore of Lake Cochrane and traveled up to an eighth of a mile to the northeast. The tornado caused minor damage overall and was mainly concentrated in an area along Edgewater drive at Lake Cochrane. The damage was mainly to docks, boats, boat lifts, canopies, and shoreline shrubbery along with some minor tree damage. Two homes also suffered damage with one home having the western portion of the steel roof rolled back and tossed a small distance.
June 2025	Hail	Gary	-	no account filed
September 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Gary	-	no account filed
June 2024	Hail	Gary	-	no account filed
August 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Gary	-	no account filed
May 2022	Hail	Gary	-	no account filed
June 2014	Hail	Gary	-	no account filed
August 2012	Hail	Gary	-	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Gary	-	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Gary	-	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Gary	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Gary	-	no account filed
September 2001	Hail	Gary	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Gary	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Deuel County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

4 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Odd Fellows Building	0.4 miles	1976
First National Bank	0.4 miles	1977
Herrick Barn	0.6 miles	2005
Old Cochrane Road Bridge	6.9 miles	1993

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 88000570 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Deuel County	All 10 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.