Hamilton Sites

The historic post office in Hamilton, Montana was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in the amount of $100,000.  Construction began in 1940 and was completed in 1941.   The style of the building is standard design for post offices at the time, a sort of cross between Federalist and Moderne, with flat roof and white trim around windows and the front entrance. We doubt is that the architectural plan came from the Public Works Administration, as stated on the historic marker in front; the Treasury Department's Procurement Division had its own team of architects, led by Louis Simon. A New Deal...

The historic post office building in Hamilton, Montana houses an oil-on-canvas mural entitled "Flat Head War Party" by artist Henry Meloy. It is one of only six New Deal murals in Montana post offices. The federal Treasury Department Section of Fine Arts funded the work, which was installed in 1942. The subject matter of the Meloy mural is a bit unusual: the formation of a "war party" of Shoshone preparing to go fight Blackfeet intruders. It depicts the natives as strong, fighting men, but why the White observer? The information sheet by the mural explains that such internecine warfare among tribes was...

The federal government built a large new health research complex in Hamilton, Montana, during the New Deal, with construction completed in 1940.  It would have been done by the Public Buildings Division of the Federal Works Administration for the use of the Public Health Service (now the National Institutes of Health, NIH).  The laboratory had previously been housed in an empty school building. The laboratory works on insect-borne diseases.   "After its successful work with spotted fever, the Rocky Mountain Laboratory expanded its facilities and programs ... to work on other insect-borne diseases, such as yellow fever and the spirochetal relapsing...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a new baseball field, with grandstand and dugouts, for the people of Hamilton, Montana.  We are not certain of the year, but it was probably in 1935 or 1936. The National Youth Administration (NYA) added a quarter-mile running track and a skating rink to the recreation area, but we did not find those in a visit in 2023. The baseball field is still in active use as "Vester Wilson Athletic Field", home of the Bitterroot Red Sox, often regional and state baseball champions, as painted proudly on the back of the old grandstand.