The 100th anniversary of the Clearfield Hall will be celebrated July 28.
The program will start at 3 p.m. with Yvonne Hollenbeck reading some of her poetry followed by a skit.
At 4 p.m., there will be games outside for kids and adults. Inside there will be bingo.
At 5 p.m. M. J. Waters will have her team of horses for wagon rides.
At 5:15 there will be small town entertainment.
The REA donated two grills they will be auctioned off at 5:45 p.m.
A supper will be held at 6 p.m.
At 7 p.m. Paul Cozane of Chamberlain will play a musical instrument.
At 8 p.m. there will be a drawing for a quilt and a gun raffle.
Nine new windows were purchased by nine families and their names will be on a plaque by each window.
The hall received a $2,000 grant from the Tripp County Community Foundation to help with this project. Steel siding and gutters were placed on the building.
The inside of the hall was repainted.
The town of Clearfield was established in 1909. The first store was owned and operated by homesteaders Mr. and Mrs. Ross Moore and Tommy Reynolds.
The Clearfield Hall was not established until 1918. It was built from donations and stock membership sales. There is a plaque in the hall that shows the charter members. The membership was $5 and that entitled each to a share in the hall. The first hall board president was John Collins and the first secretary was Jay Williams. The first constitution for the hall was dated March 1, 1918.
Many dances were held at the hall. Some of the early bands were Happy Jack O’Malley, Rosebud Kids from WNAX of Yankton and DeVere Stanford Band of Gregory.
A story was told that men had to wear a suit to the dances. There were two brothers and they only owned one suit. One brother would go in and dance with ladies and later he would go out and the other brother would change into the suit and go dance with the ladies.
In 1985, Gen Fast said she hated to see the hall in disrepair so a group of her friends formed the Clearfield Hall Auxiliary and they got busy raising funds to fix up the hall. A grant from Lutheran Aid Association helped with the new roof.
The ladies had soup suppers, rodeo concession stand, farm sale concession stands, made raffle quilts, road signs, a cookbook held talent shows and received memorials and volunteer labor to achieve the improvements.
The hall has been used as a voting place and been used for birthday parties, Christmas programs, family reunions and funeral dinners.
The public is invited to Clearfield on Saturday to celebrate the 100th anniversary.
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