Grant School opened in the fall to grades 1-8 with 13 students, 10 of whom came from the recently closed Spencer Lake School. Miss Kennedy served as the first teacher for this one-room schoolhouse. Many children traveled to school by row boats or rafts. The new school included a wood-burning pot belly stove to keep the students warm and a “necessary house” out back to be used…when necessary.

In 1932, using skid logs and a stump puller, volunteers and horses moved a play shed from up the hill to the side of the original school building. The shed was built by George Anderson and Carl Johnson. The smaller building was attached to the existing school with sliding doors separating the two connected buildings. This new addition provided a warm and dry play area for the children during the colder, rainy months.

Three students made up the last class at the Grant School. Members of the Pickering Homemaker’s Club continued to use the school building as their clubhouse.

The Grant School and its grounds became the official location for the business meetings and social activities of the Pickering Homemakers’ Club. Some men joined the club to maintain and repair the building and property.

On April 14, the Pickering Homemakers were royally entertained by the Harstine Island Club at their community hall. Since the ferry was laid up for repairs, the Homemakers made the trip across Pickering Passage to Harstine Island in a war surplus barge on a stormy day. Both clubs had plants, baked goods and white elephant items for sale.

Members of Pickering Homemakers’ Club baked nine dozen cookies a month for ward parties at Madigan Army and American Lake Veteran’s hospitals. They also furnished small gifts for the Red Cross chapters to put in the ditty bags for soldiers in Vietnam. This service-minded club also contributed to the March of Dimes, the Tuberculosis Association and the Cancer Association.

The old Grant Schoolhouse came alive when former students and a teacher gathered to celebrate their history. The group picnicked at the site with the Pickering Homemakers, the Mason County Retired Teachers and the Mason County Historical Society. Eva Blake Willis, who taught at the school between 1928 and 1933, recalled there were no big fir trees on the grounds to obstruct the view of the water as there are now. One time, she said, a whale was heading right toward a small ferry boat, and she and her class watched breathlessly fearing it would hit the boat. Fortunately, it didn’t.

Members of the Pickering Community Club joined the Harstine Community Club in a parade to commemorate the opening of the Harstine Island Bridge 50 years ago. Members wore club T-shirts and walked beside the club’s float featuring the historic Grant School complete with schoolmarm and desks from the school’s early days.

Through grants and fund-raising activities, the club has refurbished the school's original fir floors, upgraded electrical outlets and repainted the exterior.