F.M. Mack Mercantile

F.M. MACK MERCANTILE, AUGUSTA | LEWIS AND CLARK COUNTY, Photo by Melissa Munson

The F. M. Mack building in Augusta represents the classic country mercantile. Once the heartbeat of almost every community, most of these businesses long ago closed their doors and were gradually modified for other uses or demolished. Forrest Mack opened his mercantile in 1912 in nearby Gilman, amid Montana’s homestead boom. In 1925, he moved the building and attached residence two miles to Augusta when the Great Northern Railway built a spur there. The business supplied local ranching families with necessities until Mack’s death in 1966. Today, it hosts an antique store.

SHPO funded façade and sign repainting and repair of the character-defining storefront and upper clerestory windows.

REVITALIZING MONTANA’S RURAL HERITAGE

In 2019, the National Park Service awarded the Montana State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) funds from the Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant program. SHPO in turn subgranted nearly $500,000 to eight substantial and pivotal preservation projects in rural communities across the state as part of its Revitalizing Montana’s Rural Heritage grant program.