A plain, symmetrical two-story schoolhouse of brick, five bays wide, its low central gable carrying a pedimented frieze lettered SHEPARD SCHOOL 1859 above a round attic vent. Segmental-arched windows march in two rows across the front, and a small pedimented entrance porch on carved brackets shelters the central doorway, a lamp mounted beside it. A wooden picket fence with paired gates encloses the packed-earth yard, shaded by young trees, a frame dwelling close on one side and a brick building on the other.
The first of the three Shepard schools, this modest two-story building went up in 1859 at Marine Avenue and Miami Street, near the old Marine Hospital that gave the surrounding neighborhood its name. It carried the name of Elihu Shepard (1795-1876), the St. Louis educator and founder of the Missouri Historical Society. As the district grew, the school moved in 1885 to a larger New Shepard School a few blocks north, and again in 1906 to William B. Ittner's Shepard School on Wisconsin Avenue, which still stands. This original building outlasted its school days — it was still standing when photographed in 1906 — before it was eventually demolished.
