The Latest Historic Preservation News from Across the State

A Giant Leap for MPA

Leap Year looks to be a lucky one for MPA, starting with the great news in January that the J.M. Kaplan Fund awarded us $75,000 to fund brick and mortar grants to preserve Montana’s historic industrial architecture.

And then, to add to our amazing fortune, more exciting news came in early February with word from the National Trust for Historic Preservation that MPA will receive a $150,000 Partners in the Field challenge grant to expand our Most Endangered Places program. Together, these funds, along with matching funds from private donors and friends like the Montana History Foundation, will allow MPA to hire dedicated field staff, better respond to imminent preservation threats across Montana, and help fund the preservation of some of Montana’s most important buildings and structures. Continue reading here.

Five Communities Receive Preserve America Grants
Butte, Great Falls, Havre, Jefferson County, and Missoula will receive a total of $37,638 in Preserve America grant funds from the State Historic Preservation Office to fund education and training programs in historic preservation. 

Butte will receive a total of $12,270 for two projects.  Butte Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization was awarded $4,270 for three hands-on preservation workshops, from historic window and brick masonry repairs to maintaining and repairing hot water heater systems. Also, Butte was awarded $8,000 to edit a special Butte-Anaconda issue of Drumlummon Views, an online arts and culture journal. The innovative journal will feature essays, portfolios, reprints, as well as new research on the landscape and architecture of Butte and Anaconda by leading Butte-Anaconda scholars and artists. Continue reading here.

New Digs for Butte Archives
The Butte Archives, located in the majestic Fire Hall #1, is set to expand after Butte voters approved a $7.5 million bond issue last November. The new building will be constructed right next door to the archives, and will double the archival capacity for the ever expanding collections while providing larger public reading rooms. The bond also provides for the refurbishment of the historic fire hall, a historic treasure in its own right, with its original fireman’s pole and hook and ladder equipment still in place.  The plan will improve the building’s exterior and mechanical systems in order to ensure the protection of the collections and better public access to the archives. The archives’ building committee is set to select the architect for the project soon.

Grants Available for Historic Barn Repair

The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) of the Montana Historical Society has announced the third round of its Rural Property Brick and Mortar Grant.  The program will award a total of $15,000 to as many as three historic rehabilitation projects involving historic, rural agriculture- related buildings.  SHPO will reimburse successful applicants a minimum of $5,000 for their work.   Continue reading here.

A Tale of Two Hospitals
For two Montana hospitals recently resurrected, “a little R & R” means a healthy dose of restoration and renovation to create new homes for local residents and a new life for these architectural gems. In the past few years, both the Holy Rosary Hospital in Miles City and the old General Hospital in Kalispell have been sensitively renovated into apartments, a transformation well-suited to the needs of their changing and growing communities. Continue reading here.

Preservation People

On the Road with Tom Ferris
These days photographer Tom Ferris drives a lot. Down long gravel roads, through fields of sage, under vast blue skies, and past much livestock and wild game, Tom is on a mission from MPA to photograph over 80 of Montana’s historic barns from Wibaux to Sanders County. He started out in September and so far has been to more than 20 barns in distant locales reaching from Beaverhead County to Hill County, back down to Clyde Park and the Paradise Valley and then all the way over to Wibaux. Tom says he’s having the time of his life and is turning into a real “barn geek.” He plans to continue photography through the winter, weather permitting, and into the spring and summer in order to catch Montana’s diverse collection of barns in every season. The book, The Last Best Barns: A Pictorial History by MPA staffers Chere Jiusto and Christine Brown will be published by the Montana Historical Society Press in 2009.