The Old Spink Colony was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 with a thematic submission for Historic Hutterite Colonies.
The Hutterite Brethren live in eastern South Dakota in communal colonies, which are sited along the major water courses of the James, Big Sioux and Missouri Rivers and their tributaries. In 1874, a group migrated from the Ukraine to Bon Homme County and established the first colony. As of 1982, there were 46 colonies in the state. Twenty-three had gone extinct. However, with the Hutterite pattern of resettlement by daughter colonies, nine of these were reoccupied after 1935.
The Old Spink Colony was part of the Dariusleut group (other two being Schmiedeleut and Lehrerleut). It lasted from 1905 to 1918. In 1945, the site was resettled by a Bon Homme daughter colony.
The colonies used similar building types and traditional site plans (depending on topography). There are five types of historic structures including: the dining halls and kitchen, long houses (dwellings or apartments), schools and churches, barns, and shops. Domestic activity was clustered around a courtyard, with shops placed just beyond. Outbuildings often surrounded the core buildings, aligned parallel or perpendicular to them, but placed along the drive or surrounding farmyard. In the historic colonies, stone was the most popular building material.
