Lewis & Clark Co. Hospital Historic District, Addendum and Boundary Increase

The Lewis and Clark County Hospital Historic District Boundary Increase, referred to historically as the Lewis and Clark County Hospital Cemetery or Poor Farm Cemetery was listed as a contributing resource of the previously National Register-listed hospital district, acknowledging its role as part of the hospital’s mission in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The cemetery dates to 1890 when the County surveyed a two-acre section to hold plots for 480 individuals approximately 600 yards northwest of the hospital and poor farm. The earliest internments occurred during the winter of 1890-1891, when the County Commissioners contracted to exhume and reinter 80 individuals from the first poor farm cemetery. Subsequent to these reinternments, residents of the hospital who died were buried here from circa 1890 to 1916. The cemetery served as a potters field for unclaimed bodies and for those not able to afford burial in one of Helena, Montana’s eight cemeteries. While the individual markers are now gone, the orderly rows of interments remain lightly evident across the surface of the cemetery.

Listed July 1, 2024

Lewis and Clark County Hospital Historic District Boundary Increase

The Lewis and Clark County Hospital Historic District is significant for its treatment and care for the poor and the development of a county public health program. Accompanying the hospital was the county poor farm. Although the hospital has been listed in the Register for over 20 years, this boundary increase, acknowledges the hospital cemetery’s role in the hospital operation.

The two-acre cemetery, established in 1890, holds 480 plots and was used as a potters field until 1916. While the individual markers are gone, and the land is used as park-like open space adjacent to residential development, slight depressions in orderly rows remain lightly evident across the cemetery. 

Jon Axline prepared the boundary increase.