Crystal Ice & Fuel Company, Listed!
The 1920 Crystal Ice & Fuel Company building hosted several important businesses in downtown Billings over its history. In addition to Crystal Ice and Fuel, these enterprises included the Great Northern Seed Company, Farmers Union Co-operative Creamery (a business that occupied the building for 22 years), Seven-Up and Coca-Cola bottling companies, Western Newspaper Union. The building embodies the Western Commercial style of architecture popular at the time—straight-forward with minimal flair style that proved pleasing yet functional.
Harding Way Historic District, Listed!
The Harding Way Highway Historic District represents the combined efforts of Silver Bow County, Federal Bureau of Public Roads, and Montana State Highway Commission to improve the state’s highway system in the wake of federal and state legislation passed in 1921.
Baatz Block in Great Falls, Listed!
The Western Commercial style Baatz Block represents a 1910s commercial building associated with a time in Great Falls when multi-story masonry buildings replaced their earlier wood-framed counterparts. The Baatz, which housed a succession of ground floor bars and taverns with hotel rooms above, has a colorful past. It was so notorious that it became a poster child to legislators who invoked Baatz’s owner and his ilk when the 1917 legislature passed a temperance bill into law making Montana a dry state. Fast forward a century, and the Baatz is making a productive contribution to Great Falls and Montana's housing crisis with the help of NeighborWorks Great Falls, HomeWord of Missoula, and Historic Tax Credits. The Baatz will reopen next month offering community services and 25 apartments for otherwise unhoused people. Julie Stiteler prepared this nomination.
Northern Montana College Girls Residence Hall, Listed!
Designed by architect Frank Bossuot, the Collegiate Gothic Northern Montana College Girls Residence Hall’s construction in Havre marked the college’s serious intent to provide quality higher education to Montana’s northern tier students.
Carter County Wouldn’t Be the Same Without . . .
Carter County spans more than 3,300 square miles in southeastern Montana yet includes just two official entries in the National Register of Historic Places. What historic or archaeological resource in Carter County do you think is worthy of preservation?
McCone County wouldn’t be the same without . . .
The Gladstone Hotel in Circle, Montana, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and represented one of McCone County’s two official entries. Unfortunately, the historic and beloved hotel, and arguably the last piece of standing original history in Circle, burned down this past September.
Ruffatto School in Richland County, Listed!
In 1910, rancher Mrs. T. T. Armstrong rode several hundred miles on horseback to secure signatures that would establish a school district serving rural communities in a vast area south of the Missouri River. As the population of Richland County grew, the school district was reorganized to include what would become the Ruffatto School in Richland County.
Eave returns
Commonly seen on American architecture of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, the eave return or cornice return serves to aesthetically elevate a building’s façade and to convey a message about the building’s function or perhaps about the people who made their home there.
Notches
Festive, cozy, and nestled in the forest — the log cabin is the architectural epitome of the holiday season. A well-built log cabin stays so cozy throughout the winter due to the watertight and windproof seal created in part by a notching system at the cabin’s corners. In “locking” the logs, notches help make traditional sealing materials of mud, clay, and straw (known as chinking when on the exterior of the cabin and daubing on the interior) more effective.
What’s the difference between shakes and shingles?
Q: What’s the difference between shakes and shingles?
A: It kind of depends on whom you ask
Warehouse Transformed into Commerical Spaces with the Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program
Imagine a historic Art Deco school turned into low-income apartments, or a warehouse transformed into commercial spaces for small businesses. Since 1997, the Montana State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has helped to facilitate through the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program the rehabilitation of 81 historic buildings across the state.
Basin Creek Park Historic District, Listed!
The Basin Creek Park Historic District represents corporate efforts of the early twentieth century to provide members of the working and middle classes a place to escape the summer heat of the city for leisure and recreation in a scenic rural setting. Butte Water Company’s commitment to maintaining the free public park ensured Basin Creek’s role as one of the most popular recreation spots in Silver Bow County for decades to come.
Thankful for Historic Theaters (and Theatres)
Montana is home to at least ten historic theaters that are eligible to be listed or are currently listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Glass block
Glass block is a type of structural glass that gained popularity in the first half of the 20th century when styles like Art Deco, Streamline, and Art Moderne were in vogue. Glass block frequently shows up in both interior and exterior walls in industrial, commercial, and even residential architecture of the 1930s and 1940s.