Glacier County Courthouse Cut Bank, Montana
National Register of Historic Places Data
Glacier County Courthouse has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places with the following information, which has been imported from the National Register database and/or the Nomination Form . Please note that not all available data may be shown here, minor errors and/or formatting may have occurred during transcription, and some information may have become outdated since listing.
- National Register ID
- 13000446
- Date Listed
- June 25, 2013
- Name
- Glacier County Courthouse
- Other Names
- 24GL1319
- Part of
- N/A (Multiple Property Submission)
- Address
- 512 E. Main St.
- City/Town
- Cut Bank
- County
- Glacier
- State
- Montana
- Category
- building
- Level of Sig.
- local
- Areas of Sig.
- POLITICS/GOVERNMENT; COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT; ARCHITECTURE
Description
Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.
The Glacier County Courthouse in Cut Bank , Montana stands as a significant representation of the development of the locality. Designed in 1938 and completed in 1939 , it was built during a period of unprecedented prosperity in Cut Bank and the eastern side of the county, known as the Santa Rita Strip.At that time, while most of Montana and the nation experienced severe economic hardship, the area witnessed an oil boom that brought jobs, economic stability, and optimism.The building represents the county's confidence in their future, and hopeful pride in becoming the Oil Capital of the World. The building served the community since its construction as a center of political activity for the county, and housed county political officers, staff, and court. For these reasons , it is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A. The building gains additional significance under Criterion C for its representation of the PWA Modern/Stripped Classical style and its associations with Angus Mciver, a prominent architect based in Great Falls during the mid and late twentieth century .2 The Glacier County Courthouse stands as an excellent local example of the style that became increasingly influential by the late 1930s - a time when many architects experimented with abstracted classical motifs combined with a reduction in architectural ornament. The courthouse's planes of Great Falls brick are nearly devoid of classical ornamentation, limited to the punctuated regular rhythm of tall, elongated bays, champhered terra cotta panels at the entry surround , and fluted terra cotta spandrels dividing the window bays between floors.The Glacier County Courthouse artfully embodies Mciver's monumental civic works at mid-century .
