When President Roosevelt authorized the Works Progress Administration construction of the Fort Peck Dam in 1933, the “instant” town with a population of 10,000 created a need for social and recreational diversions in this remote area of Montana. The Army Corps of Engineers designed and constructed this theatre in less than nine months at a cost of nearly $90,000. The theatre opened November 16, 1934, as a movie house. Seating capacity was 1,200 and continuous showings ran twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week during the construction of the Fort Peck Dam. Patrons sometimes braved lines as long as seven blocks to see the newest films for a forty-cent floor or thirty-cent balcony seat. The theatre’s function as a movie house ceased in 1968, but its original carbon arc projectors remain in operable condition. The cut-out balustrades, false balconies, champhered beams, and herringbone-patterned siding of this Swiss chalet style structure reveal careful attention to artistic detail that is unsurpassed in WPA construction in Montana. The Fort Peck Theatre now houses the largest professional theatre company in eastern Montana and is a cultural treasure serving almost eight thousand theatre-goers during the summer months.
]]>When President Franklin Roosevelt’s signature authorized construction of the Fort Peck Dam on October 14, 1933, officials immediately began one of the nation’s largest New Deal projects. The promise of work on the 134-mile filled-earth dam brought as many as 50,000 people to the Fort Peck townsite. Former college professors, hoboes, foreclosed farmers, and many others came from across the nation to settle here. The only thing they had in common was the need for work; the project employed nearly 10,500 men, who had lost their livelihoods during the Great Depression. The townsite that sprang up to serve these instant residents was designed to be temporary. Instead, Fort Peck became a permanent community of about 300, and beautiful Fort Peck Lake is today a favorite recreation destination created from the 1930s Dust Bowl. The Fort Peck Hotel and Garage were among the “temporary” government structures constructed in the 1930s. Planners chose the Swiss Chalet style, popularized in the national parks of the 1910s and 1920s, for the town’s most prominent buildings such as the hospital, theatre, store, laboratory, and this hotel. The hotel and its utilitarian garage catered to the many government employees and others who came to work, oversee, and inspect the building of the huge dam between 1933 and 1943. The hotel’s rustic timbers, rough-sawn siding, and dramatic gabled entry became a permanent fixture in the temporary-turned-permanent townsite. The now privately operated hotel, refurbished to its 1933 ambience, is a focal point in the community and caters to the visitors who come to enjoy this man-made paradise.
]]>The Administration Building was built in 1934 to house management operations for the construction and maintenance of Fort Peck Dam and Lake. Construction of Fort Peck Dam was one of the most ambitious public works projects and symbolized the New Deal in Montana. As many as 10,500 workers participated in construction activities during the 1930s, and as many as 50,000 lived in the surrounding communities. While the Swiss Chalet style popularized in the West by the National Park Service from the early 1900s to the 1920s dominates the town, the Colonial Revival style Administration Building stands eloquently apart. Front and rear porches, window shutters, and a clay tile roof with parapet and octagonal cupola embellish the austere symmetrical plan that aptly conveys the building’s significance. During intense construction of the 1930s, wood frame wings were added to house payroll offices and construction staff, while two bunkhouses on the east side accommodated workers. These temporary structures were later removed. Today the Administration Building still presides over the area, home of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Peck Lake office, and other federal agencies.
]]>