Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
Great Falls founder Paris Gibson was drawn to the power of the falls of the Missouri where he vowed to found an industrial center of “unsurpassed beauty.” Backed by railroad magnate James J. Hill, Gibson hired H. P. Rolfe to plat the townsite in 1883. Industry harnessed the river’s power and the advent of the railroad in 1887 assured the town a future. The Northside District, part of the original townsite, was planned as a neighborhood removed from industrial activity but still convenient to it. By the 1890s doctors, lawyers, politicians, businessmen, and smelter officials had begun to settle in its neighborhoods. More than 200 beautifully preserved homes and buildings span the period from 1885 to 1945, offering a medley of period architectural styles including Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Craftsman Bungalow, Prairie, and Moderne. The work of renowned architect George Shanley, a Northside resident, indelibly colors the district. The Classical Revival style Sacred Heart Convent and the Romanesque Revival style Cascade County Jail showcase his talents. Paris Gibson himself, first mayor of Great Falls, also built a Northside home. Gibson believed that beautiful surroundings molded a diverse population into a contented community. Gibson Park which skirts the district and the double-lined boulevards, resplendently shaded by huge trees planted between 1888 and 1913, are central to Gibson’s legacy. Today the Northside’s residential streets, magnificent churches, and impressive public buildings reflect the economic, social and political flowering of Gibson’s vision.
Cascade County Courthouse
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
Spirited revelry in the streets of Great Falls greeted news of the creation of Cascade County in 1887. Named county seat, Great Falls grew quickly, with county offices located in various downtown buildings. In 1891, voters approved the visionary $20,000 purchase of an entire city block for the site…
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Anaconda Company Manager's House
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
The Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company, later acquired by the Anaconda Company, chose a treeless bluff overlooking the river to locate its smelter and refinery in 1892. Among the seventeen managers’ houses built at Black Eagle in the mid-1890s, this Queen Anne style…
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St. Ann's Cathedral
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
Shortly after Pope Pius X established the Diocese of Great Falls in 1904, Great Falls’ first bishop, Matthias Lenihan, hired Montana architect John Hackett Kent to design a cathedral equal to those in Europe. Kent, who helped design the Montana state capitol, looked to thirteenth-century England…
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Afflerbach/Silverman House
Touted as the “finest dwelling in Great Falls” when it debuted in 1903, this Queen Anne “Free Classic” style home was designed by architect W. E. Donovan for German immigrants Herman and Anna Afflerbach. The home’s bay windows, classical porch columns, and dentil (tooth-like) moldings are stylistic…
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Adams/Strain House
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
Great Falls architect William E. Donovan designed this distinctive California Mission style residence for Dr. Frances J. and Alice C. Adams in 1909. They named the home Angle Nook, referring to the unusual triangle-shaped lot it occupies. The clay tile roof, curvilinear gable ends, stucco walls,…
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McCulloh Residence
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
Carroll B. McCulloh and his wife Ella constructed this elegant two-story brick home in 1911, raising their two children here. Its two-and-one-half stories, simple box shape, low-hipped roof, large central dormer, wide overhanging eaves, and offset front porch mark it as a Prairie style foursquare.…
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Edward H. Cooney Residence
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
A planned, tree-lined neighborhood away from the town’s industrial activity, the Northside welcomed Great Falls’ business and professional community. Charles Lemley, owner of the Bon Ton Confectionery, chose to build his family home here in 1900. The well-maintained home preserves Victorian-era…
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305 Third Avenue North
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
A graceful wraparound porch with square posts, a central entry beneath a projecting gable, and transomed windows distinguish this charming vernacular example of the Greek Revival style. Inside, a rounded hall ceiling adds lovely period elegance. The single-story frame dwelling beautifully…
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Terrill Apartments
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
Apartment buildings were good investments in rapidly expanding communities like Great Falls, which grew from 17,000 to 26,000 between 1910 and 1920. Owners reported waiting lists for units, which ranged from rooms in old-fashioned “apartment hotels” to elegant flats in modern buildings constructed…
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W.K. Floweree House
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
A grand home on a large corner lot, this Colonial Revival residence bespeaks the prominence of its first owners. Banker, rancher, and state senator William Floweree and his wife, Norma, built this brick two-and-one-half-story home in 1916. Its dentils (toothlike projections) under the cornice,…
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C.E. Davis Residence
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
Charles E. Davis, “expert watchmaker and jeweler,” arrived in Great Falls with his wife, Grace, in 1900. With Charles’ two brothers, the couple opened a store on bustling Central Avenue, selling jewelry, watches, cut glass, gifts, and eyeglasses. Their son, William, continued the family business,…
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Quigley House
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
By 1908, Montana’s agricultural boom was in full swing, and real estate agents like John Quigley, whose firm offered farms “on 20 years payments,” seemed poised to make a fortune. That year forty-eight-year-old Quigley built this large Colonial Revival style home on the prestigious block of Fourth…
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A.W. Kingsbury House
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
Pictured in 1909 in the Great Falls Tribune under the headline “A Great Falls Residence,” this Queen Anne style house was hardly typical of its day. An imposing two-and-one-half-story structure, the elegant home was built in 1901 for Adkin W. and Margaret Kingsbury and their two children.…
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Abe and Carrie Kaufman Residence
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
A dramatic living room fireplace, crystal chandelier, and boxed-beam dining room ceiling are among the original fixtures continuing to decorate the interior of the Abe and Carrie Kaufman residence. Neoclassical, Craftsman, and Victorian detailing combine in this two-and-one-half-story residence,…
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Toole Residence
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
The front canted bay window hints at the modest one-story Queen Anne style residence that lies at the core of this elegant home. In 1891, the house was one of only two on the block. A small back addition had been added by 1900, when Mandeville Philips purchased the home. Philips owned the Stockholm…
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Bridgeman House
Northside Residential Historic District
Wisconsin natives Morris and Clara Bridgeman built this Queen Anne Free Classic style home in 1895. Morris operated a drug store while Clara stayed home with their three boys. Features like the attached nursery in the master bedroom, large dining room with built-in hutches, and spacious backyard…
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315 Fourth Avenue North
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
Great Falls’ premier residential street, Fourth Avenue North, gained 24 new homes between 1900 and 1910. Among them was this substantial residence, constructed in 1904 for bookkeeper Edgar Newlon and his wife Anna. The home is a classic American foursquare, a style so named for its boxy shape. Like…
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Clark Apartments
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
Newcomers flooded into Great Falls in the 1910s as the mining industry boomed and businesses grew. Waiting lists for apartments, hotels, and boarding houses encouraged building on speculation. Joseph Bullock, a retired laborer for the B & M Mining Company, was one such investor who built these…
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Boyd House
Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District
By 1910, the Queen Anne style had lost much of its allure. Once admired, its artistic jumble of angles, textures, and colors had become reviled as cluttered and artificial. This rejection of complexity was gradual, and many houses—like this transitional Queen Anne/Colonial Revival style…
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