Soldiers' Home Historic District

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For the Soldiers Home Historic District in Milwaukee, see Northwestern Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers Historic District.
Soldiers' Home Historic District
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Soldiers' Home Historic District is located in Montana
Soldiers' Home Historic District
Location Veterans Drive, Columbia Falls, Montana
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Area 147 acres (59 ha)
Built 1896 (1896)
Built by Fred Whiteside
Architect Charles S. Haire
Architectural style Colonial Revival, Queen Anne
NRHP Reference # 94000385[1]
Added to NRHP April 21, 1994

The Soldiers' Home Historic District, a historic Old soldiers' home campus, is located in Columbia Falls, Flathead County, Montana.

The 147 acres (59 ha) historic district has 9 listed buildings, designed in the Victorian Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles.[2][3]

Originally called the Montana State Soldiers' Home, and now the Montana Veterans' Home, the institution has served veterans since 1896.[4] The mission of the home is, "to honor the service of Montana’s veterans by serving them in turn in their time of need."[5]

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

History

In the 1890s, Montana had 25 Civil War veterans living on county poor farms, out of a total of 2,500 veterans. In 1895, the Montana State legislature responded to lobbying by the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) and authorized the establishment of a soldiers' home. Columbia Falls was selected out of a group of eight communities. Its citizens donated $3,100. Additionally, 147 acres of land were donated by the Northern Improvement Co., a subsidiary of the Great Northern Railway.

Charles S. Haire designed the Old Main building, which was built by Fred Whiteside, a builder and Montana politician, in 1896.

Haire also designed a small hospital in 1900. The hospital became the Commandant’s House in 1980. A new, larger hospital built in 1908 has since been demolished. The 1919 Service Building has a chapel, and housed the employees of the home. A cemetery was established in 1897.[5]

A new housing facility for veterans, the Montana Veterans' Home, was opened by Montana Governor Forrest H. Anderson at an official dedication ceremony in 1970.[6] It provides housing and subsistence to veterans, and in some cases, to veterans' spouses.[7]

An E. M. Viquesney statue of a WWI doughboy was moved to the front of the Veterans' Home in 1972. The statue originally stood in front of the Flathead County Courthouse in Kalispell, in Main Street's median.[8]

See also

References

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