- City:
- Bozeman, MT
- Site Type:
- Civic Facilities, Courthouses (State & Local)
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Work Relief Programs, Public Works Administration (PWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Started:
- 1936
- Designer:
- Fred Willson
Description
Jim Jenks writes: “Designed in the Moderne style” popular at the time, “Gallatin County’s 1936 courthouse at 311 West Main Street was one of several federally financed projects that brought jobs and civic improvements to Bozeman during the Great Depression.”
The author notes that the WPA underwrote both the construction of the new county courthouse as well as the demolition of its predecessor.
The building is still utilized by Gallatin County today. A 1939 survey of PWA works described the building as follows:
“This building is three stories and a basement in height and is 85 by 110 feet in plan. The courtroom and offices for the court officials, jury rooms, etc., are on the top floor. The second floor houses most of the county departments and the first floor provides a large community room as well as offices for the county engineer, superintendent of schools, the health department, county agent, and sheriff.
The building is fireproof throughout and the exterior walls are faced with limestone. It was completed in September 1936 at a construction cost of $224,313 and a project cost of $243,951.” (Short and Brown)
Source notes
"A Guide to Historic Bozeman" by Jim Jenks (page 72) https://books.google.com/books?id=erMThKd3oi4C&pg=PA72#v=onepage&q&f=false C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown. "Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration." (1939).Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on January 10, 2014.
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