Part 1: Downtown and Lower Northside Residential Historic Districts in Great Falls, Montana - Thursday, June 16, 2022

In a few days, we will cross the border into Canada. Still and all, we have about 2,000 miles to get to Alaska. It's a long way through British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon Territory!

But, we'll focus on today for now. We started the morning at the Great Falls Visitor Center. The friendly staff loaded us up with brochures to keep us busy for a couple of weeks. We will have to narrow that down as we only have four days here. LOL.

"Explorers at the Portage," (front view)
by Robert M. Scriver, Sculptor.

"Explorers at the Portage," (rear view)
by Robert M. Scriver, Sculptor.

"Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Event,"
By Jay Laber (2005)

"Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Event,"
By Jay Laber (2005)

The previous sculptures were on the grounds of the Visitor Center. From the Visitor Center, we carefully crossed the busy street and went up the hill into the park to check out T-Rex.

Channeling my inner T-Rex.

At the Great Falls Visitor Center, we picked up a walking tour brochure for the Lower Northside Residential Historic District. We drove downtown and parked at the old railroad depot. On our way to the Northside Residential walk, we decided to walk up and down the streets of downtown Great Falls. Both of us were impressed by the number of murals.

The first photos: These are individual images from a whole wall of murals underneath a bridge. If I tried to post them all, there would be 20+ photos. 

Bob is in front of an artsy sculpture with a lion's
head at the top. I did not see who the artist* was.
Gibson Park, Great Falls, Montana.

*A Google search for the above sculpture at the entrance to Gibson Park revealed the artist is Mike Hollern. The architectural lion's head is said to have come from the old Liberty Theater in Great Falls. (This information is from an article in The Great Falls Tribune titled "River's Edge Trail a Great Falls art collector," by Rich Ecke, July 27, 2016.)

This plaque describes the building below (two photos).

This tire with wings is way up high on the building.

There is a gorgeous set of murals on this building.

The above murals on the Pennington Building are (from left to right): "Bird," by Sheree Nelson; "Not Afraid," by Camerron Mobery; "Grizzly," by Fasm; art deco "Clouds," by Ricky Watts, and "Great Falls," by Tana Murray.

"Bird," by Sheree Nelson.

"C.M. Russell," by Jim DeStaffany and
Andrew Fowler.

"Fall Leaves," by Jenna Morello.

"Woman," by Mister Toledo.

"Freedom Tiger," by Fasm.

We were famished and had been looking for a place to eat lunch. We found a Great Harvest Bread Company and ordered a sandwich and dessert to share. There was no place to sit and eat and we couldn't find a park, a bench, or a picnic table. St. Ann's Cathedral was a couple of blocks away and we found side stairs in the shade. It was a very nice, quiet place to have our lunch.
.

St. Ann's Cathedral: Gothic Revival style
with "exaggerated verticality."

More information on St. Ann's Cathedral.

Great Falls has some of the most awesome architecture! We were amazed. Before we enter the residential area, please take a moment to read the plaque below. It is an overview of how the Lower Northside Residential area came to be and how it was planned.

Here's the scoop on the Northside Residential area.

Classic Revival influences adorn this 1907 house built
and occupied by prominent contractor C.O. Jarl.
He spared no detail on this, his own residence.

This home reflects both English Tudor Revival and American 
prairie styles. It was built in 1911, also by C.O. Jarl.

Same house as above. Large brackets and exposed 
and corbelled rafters support the roofs.

Church of the Incarnation (1906): This two-story
stone Episcopal church looks like it came
straight out of the English countryside.

The First Baptist Church below has been altered and remodeled numerous times. Gothic windows adorned with colored glass and stone entrance arches with paneled wood doors distinguish the building.

Built in 1910, this two-story stone church reflects
Gothic Revival Prairie Collegiate influences.

First Baptist Church.

The completely colorful and fanciful paintings on the electrical boxes caught my eye and made me smile.

The next few photos are of the Cascade County Courthouse which opened for business in 1903. It still stands as a tribute to French Renaissance architecture. The building is more than 45-feet fall and is topped with a copper-faced tower adorned with a statue of Lady Justice. 

Cascade County Courthouse, 
Great Falls, Montana.

Cascade County Courthouse, 
Great Falls, Montana.

Cascade County Courthouse, 
Great Falls, Montana.

Cascade County Courthouse, 
Great Falls, Montana.

The courthouse rotunda floors bear the original mosaic tile, and beveled glass windows shine down on an elegant center staircase adorned with iron balustrade and marble treads. Architects H.N. Black and Frank Longstaff designed the building and Lease & Richards constructed it at a cost of $300,000.

The Great Falls Public Library is a beautiful modern building. Alma Smith Jacobs was a life-long Montanan who led the creation of the state-of-the-art Great Falls Public Library in the late 1960s. To honor Alma, the City of Great Falls dedicated the plaza in front of the library to her. The centerpiece of the plaza is the sandstone arch created by Montana born Zak H. Zakovi. The arch took three years to complete using stones from Harlowton, Montana. The Alma Smith Jacobs Memorial Plaza Arch is a fountain, but it was not on when we were there.

Great Falls Public Library and the memorial arch.

These two are not like the others!

Statue of liberty replica in Gibson Park, 
placed by the Boy Scouts of America.

The house below is a Colonial Mission Revival style built in 1909 for Dr. Francis J. Adams who played a major role in the construction of Great Falls' first hospital. He practiced medicine in the right front wing of the house. Note the rough-textured stucco walls, the red terra cotta tile roof and the decorative iron balconies, pents, and brackets. There's not another house like it in Great Falls.

Colonial Mission Revival built in 1909.

Transitional Queen Anne Colonial Revival built in 1910.
Cut sandstone was used to create the lintels, sills, steps, 
and the base of the porch. The enormous brick
chimneys have detailed corbelled tops and banding

This 1891 Victorian seven-bedroom, 120-ton
residence was carefully trucked across town in 
1983 after the smelter closed.

Simple frame home with Greek temple styling, 
built circa 1907. It was the home to former
Great Falls Mayor James Speer.

The English Revival Style house below has an interesting history. It was built in 1907 for F.P. Atkinson, one of the founders of the Cascade Bank of Great Falls. From the mid-1950s until 1963, A. Bertram Guthrie, Jr., a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who wrote The Big Sky, The Way West, and other historical novels, lived here. Guthrie used the small building in back as his studio.

English Revival Style house built in 1907.

The very photogenic St. Ann's Cathedral.

The St. Ann's Cathedral Memorial Doors. Wow!

St. Ann's Cathedral.

A. W. Kingsbury House (see sign below).

See photo of this house above.

Abe and Carrie Kaufman residence. Neoclassical,
Craftsman, and Victorian detailing. (See
sign in photo below.)

See photo of this house above.

Neo-Classical house built sometime in the 1890s
for prominent grocery store owner C.T. Grove.

An imposing Period Revival home that features
locally quarried ashlar sandstone. This home
features an enormous porch surrounding the west
and south sides, and has a ballroom on the third floor.

2-1/2 story Queen Anne and Classical Revival 
home built between 1902 and 1918.

That concludes our Historic Lower Northside Residential walking tour. We crossed Park Drive North and re-entered Gibson Park where we started our walk hours ago. Gibson Park is quite large and runs for seven blocks alongside the Missouri River.

Paris Gibson, founder of Great Falls.
(1830-1920.)

This compass says, "Never lose your way."

"A city of wind, water and future."

Learn about Whitman Gibson Jones,
Paris's cousin.

Vinegar Jones' cabin where he lived with his
family for many years. (Definitely a tiny home!)

Bob is in front of Vinegar Jones' cabin.

I found a little poser in the park.

Because I was so enamored of the variety of different houses, I spent a lot of time on architecture in this blog. This blog is very long already, so the rest of our day will continue in Part 2: Lewis and Clark Historical Trail Interpretive Center and Giant Springs State Park.