• Civic Center - Great Falls MT
    Clean lines, formal monumental openings, and restrained revival details mark the 1939 Great Falls Civic Center as a municipal Art Deco style building. The Works Projects Administration provided most of the funding for the building. The Depression-era federal jobs program employed people doing everything from local history research to public works projects. Since WPA funds could not be used to purchase land, the city situated the Civic Center on parkland, angering residents who wanted to preserve Great Falls’ beloved Gibson Circle at the end of Central Avenue. A lawsuit that went all the way to the state supreme court failed...
  • Great Falls International Airport Improvements - Great Falls MT
    Multiple New Deal agencies contributed to the development of what is now Great Falls International Airport. According to the Big Timber Pioneer newspaper, the PWA supplied a loan and grant toward a $304,000 project at what is now Great Falls International Airport. The project "includes the erection of a hangar with a door 200 feet wide by 36 feet high ... an administration building and lighting of the field." P.W.A. Docket No.: Mont. 1189 Grant: $148,185 W.P.A. project information: “Develop airport site” Official Project Number: 165‐1‐91‐110 Total project cost: $167,281.00 Sponsor: City of Great Falls
  • Montana Expo Park Buildings - Great Falls MT
    Montana's Big Timber Pioneer newspaper reported in 1937: "Harold F. DePue, manager of the North Montana State fair, announced two new structures—the Future Farmers' building and a horse barn—have been completed at the fair plant here. The buildings were erected through co-operation of Cascade county, the PWA and the fair commission. A third new unit—the mercantile building, Is near completion."
  • Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind - Great Falls MT
    The predecessor to the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind was founded in Boulder, MT the late 1800s. The school served deaf, blind, and "feeble-minded" children. As the school -- and particularly its "feeble-minded" student population -- continued to expand during the early 1900s, the Montana's state legislature "voted to segregate the departments of the deaf and the blind from the department of the feeble-minded" (MSDB—A Short History). In doing so, the legislature approved a new campus, moving the school from the town of Boulder to the city of Great Falls, which donated ten acres of land on...
  • U.S. Post Office and Courthouse Extension - Great Falls MT
    The Great Falls Post Office and Courthouse was built in 1912. It was designed by James Knox Taylor and reflects Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals architecture and Second Renaissance Revival architecture. A New Deal extension was completed in 1938 with James Knox Taylor as the supervising architect. The building has historically served -- and still does -- as a courthouse and as a post office. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.