CENTRAL SCHOOL • 402 N. Warren
MONTANA'S FIRST GRADED SCHOOL • Est. 1876




Stereoview of a Helena classroom (presumably Central School), ca. 1875.




Central School, ca. 1908

 



Two Views of Central School, ca. 1930


COLLECTION OF NANCY GOODSPEED

Two early 1930s views of the present Central School, which was built in 1915 and expanded in 1921.


COLLECTION OF NANCY GOODSPEED

Helena High School in the background.

 

 

Central School playground, late 1940s


THE WES AND CAROL SYNNESS COLLECTION

This playground was the site of Helena's first cemetery. Most of the remains were moved to the Benton Avenue Cemetery when it opened in 1870.

 


CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

St. Vincent's Academy

St. Vincent's Academy, the Catholic High School for girls. Built in the 1880s, it stood on S. Ewing across from the first St. John's Hospital.

Ms. Sidney Armstong of Helena writes:

"St. Vincent's Academy was the Catholic high school for girls only. My mother (born in 1910), attended St. Vincent's. It had boarding students as well as day students. The boys went to St. Charles prep school, which was on the St. Charles College (now Carroll College) campus. In those days, a number of students did not go on beyond elementary school."

Thanks, Sidney!

 

An account of the 1935 earthquake which damaged St. Vincent's beyond repair, by former student Betty Sager:

"In 1935 I was a student at St. Vincent's Academy--that was the Catholic School that was condemned after the quake. I can still remember the scary feeling we all had at the time. We were in a dormitory on the 2nd floor. I remember looking out the window and everything was a bright blue color.

"You can imagine the panic of 50 or so girls. Sister said, "Now we will stay in our beds and say the rosary. Everyone settle down and lay quietly."

"When we were finally allowed to get out of bed, we put on our robes, and were led downstairs. A lot of the stairs were damaged so we had to slide down the banister. What fun! We spent the night on the lawn with many blankets.

"As the building was condemned (I'm not sure how many days passed), I was sent back to my family in Anaconda. I still get that panicky feeling when a train goes by or I feel another quake."

-From the excellent University of Utah Seismology website


St. Helena School
Finished 1909 - Demolished in the winter of 2007-2008

In this 1940s aerial view, we see the 1909 St. Helena School at the left, on the SE corner of 11th Ave. and N. Warren St.



Early postcard view of St. Helena School


COLLECTION OF KENNON BAIRD

The St. Helena Grade School on N. Warren, adjacent to St. Helena Cathedral. It was contracted in 1908 by Bishop John Carroll, and designed by architect Von Herbulis, who also designed the Cathedral.

In 2002, the Helena Diocese announced its intention to demolish the historic but long-vacant neoclassical building. That same year, the school appeared on the Montana Preservation Alliance’s list of Most Endangered Places.

A history of the School from a 2002 Independent Record story by Martin J. Kidston:

Monsignor Victor Day, rector of the cathedral, dedicated the school on Sept. 7, 1909. The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth staffed the school and classes began the next day.

The building served as a grade school until 1936. At the time, girls attended high school at St. Vincent’s Academy while boys attended Mount St. Charles High School.

But a 1935 earthquake damaged St. Vincent’s Academy beyond repair. The Rev. James Tougas, the rector of the cathedral, made room at St. Helena School for the displaced students.

At a 1936 Carroll College commencement, Bishop Joseph Gilmore announced that a co-educational high school would move into St. Helena School. The grade school was remodeled and Cathedral High School opened.

For the next 18 years the grade school and high school students shared the same building. But in 1954, as high school students outgrew the building, construction began on Helena Central High School — the building that now lines 11th Avenue and stands attached to St. Helena School.

[ Two former students have emailed to say that the building, including the 1954 addition, was always known as Cathedral High, not Central High as the article states.] - KB

The name St. Helena School was changed in the 1960s to Bishop Gilmore School. But in 1969, Bishop Raymond Hunthausen announced that both Helena Central High School and Bishop Gilmore School would close at the end of the 1969 school year.

Hunthausen cited increasing financial difficulties as the major reason. Helena Central High School now houses the Cathedral of St. Helena Parish, while the Bishop Gilmore School has sat empty for more than 20 years, its future riding on a decision by the parish.

Demolition of the building began in December of 2007. On March 7 2008, the Independent Record published a story about the final phase of the demoliton.


DEMOLITION OF ST. HELENA SCHOOL
WINTER 2007- SPRING 2008
COURTESY OF TOM KILMER


 

 






 






 

 


On March 27, 2008 Tom Kilmer added...

"Work on the demolition of the St. Helena School
proceeds at a slow pace. They started the real destruction on the east side. The walls appear to be thick and stout. Real brick construction, not just brick facing."

 

 


APRIL 2008 - DEMOLITION PROGRESSES

 

 

APRIL 2008



Many thanks to Tom for these evocative photos of St. Helena's last days.



1908 ST. HELENA SCHOOL TIME CAPSULE OPENED
April 8 2008


INDEPENDENT RECORD PHOTO BY GEORGE LANE

On Tuesdsay April 8, 2008, workmen opened the cornerstone of St. Helena School, and retrieved the copper box pictured above. It had been sealed since June of 1908. Independent Record reporter Martin J. Kidston covered the event. Read the story in the IR archives. Thanks to Judy Bakke for the heads-up about the article.

 

 

Video clip of the demolition process, spring 2008

 
VIDEO COURTESY OF TOM KILMER

 



Building interior exposed, spring 2008


COURTESY OF TOM KILMER

 




HELENA HIGH SCHOOL
THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING
1893-1935
DEMOLISHED IN 1976


COLLECTION OF KENNON BAIRD

Helena High School, ca. 1900. Completed in 1893, it was located on the southwest corner of Lawrence and N. Warren. In 1935, it was replaced by a new High School, on Rodney St. at Helena Avenue.


The footprint of the 1893 Helena High School building superimposed on a recent satellite image. Central School is prominent.


 

Interior of the old High School

Shortly before demolition in 1976.

 



 



Helena High School pennant, ca. 1915

 



Souvenir pin tray, about 1900

Probably manufactured in Germany.

 




Helena High School, 1934

One year before the great earthquakes. Compare this to the 1973 image below to see how much architectural detail was lost in the quakes.



Old Helena High School from Lawrence St., winter 1973-74


PHOTO BY WALLACE "SKIP" MILLEGAN JR. (1951-1982) • COLLECTION OF KENNON BAIRD




HELENA HIGH SCHOOL'S
VIGILANTE PARADE
THE FAMOUS MONTANA HISTORY PAGEANT
BEGUN IN 1924 TO PREVENT VIOLENCE


COLLECTION OF BOB & SUSIE LINDEBERG

Vigilante Parade float on Main St., May 12 1950

Around the turn of the 20th Century, Helena High School had a tradition called "The Senior-Junior Fight". It was a bloody and destructive springtime affair, the object of which was for the juniors to take down and desecrate a senior-class flag, which seniors would run up a flagpole located between the High School and adjacent Central School.

The fighting got so bad that the School Board eventually had the flagpole removed from the grounds. The problem was that seniors in subsequent years simply ran their flag up the pole located atop the High School building, and the fight continued on the roof.

A crackdown came, and all aspects of the event were banned from the school grounds. This had the effect of spreading the conflict all over town, with a further escalation in violence and property damage.

Authorities tried organizing alternative senior-junior competitions over the years, including a baseball game, a tug-of-war and a wrestling match. These events were seen by students as being too tame and controlled.

There were other unauthorized student actrivities during those years, including "Sneak Day" in which truancy was widespread, and "Old Clothes Day", when students would wear ragged clothes stuffed with hay and straw. There was also "Costume Day", which was held only once, but likely furnished the basic idea for the Vigilante Parade.

In 1924, meetings between students and administrators set into motion a plan for the parade: a grand pageant of historical floats, involving almost every student in a creative competition, and having at its heart the theme of the tough pioneer spirit.

As former (1907-1933) HHS Principal Albert J. Roberts said in a 1939 Helena Independent story about the origins of the parade:

"This parade, so little thought of at the time, and then only as a splendid substitute for several lawless activities, has more than any other Institution distinguished the city of Helena and its high school. From It also thousands of our citizens have obtained a knowledge of the life and customs, of the thrilling story of the early days in the Treasure state."

Because so many photographs of the parade have been taken over the decades, those presented here are necessarily limited to a representative sample. If you have good color photos from the 1940s-60s, or an unusually interesting parade photo, please let me know.



COLLECTION OF BOB & SUSIE LINDEBERG

"Montana - The Land Before You", winner of the 1949 Vigilante Parade Hllger Sweepstakes prize, at the instersection of Sixth and Main, May 27 1949. The float was by Diana Connors, Bill Bradford and Bob Painter. Diana, dressed as Sacajawea, points to the Land of the Shining Mountains, showing the way to explorers Lewis and Clark, Bill and Bob.




COLLECTION OF BOB & SUSIE LINDEBERG

"Road Agents" float, Sixth and Main, May 12 1950




COLLECTION OF BOB & SUSIE LINDEBERG

"King Winter" float, Sixth and Main, May 12 1950




COLLECTION OF BOB & SUSIE LINDEBERG

"Prayer by Jedediah Smith" float, Sixth and Main, May 12 1950

 

 


COLLECTION OF BOB & SUSIE LINDEBERG

"Tribute to the Pioneer Mother" float, Sixth and Main, May 12 1950

 



Video clip of the 1972 Vigilante Parade

 
COURTESY OF KITTY ANN QUIGLEY TAALER

From the promotional film "Helena-City of Gold", produced in 1973 by the Helena Chamber of Commerce.

 


THE SECOND HELENA HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING
1935-Today
BADLY DAMAGED IN THE 1935 EARTHQUAKES



The Art Deco 1935 Helena High School, 1025 N. Rodney, now Helena Middle School. Brand new in 1935, it was severely damaged by the earthquakes, especially the north end, which included the auditorium. It took two years to repair the building, during which time classes were held in railroad passenger coaches, which set up on specially-laid rails on Lyndale Ave.

In 1955, the present High School on Montana Avenue opened, and this school became Helena Junior High School.



Earthquake damage to the new High School, Oct. 1935

 

 



Interior quake damage to the new HHS auditorium. The scale of the damage shown here may not be apparent until one notices the rows of seats at the bottom of the photo.




"High School on Wheels" • 1935 - 1938
Railway coaches on Lyndale Ave.

A section of Lyndale just north of the damaged new High School was closed, and special tracks were laid there to accomodate the coaches, which were donated by both the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railway companies for use as classrooms.

 

Site of the railcar High School



From the Helena Daily Independent...



 

Railcar classrooms in winter, 1935-36


COLLECTION OF NANCY GOODSPEED

Photo by Gene Goodspeed, class of 1937.

 


Railcar classroom interior. Hey, where are all the girls?




COLLECTION OF NANCY GOODSPEED

First aid in the "High School on Wheels", 1935-36. School nurse Ethel M. Dietrick is shown attending to a shin problem.

 

 


COLLECTION OF NANCY GOODSPEED

Nurse Ethel M. Dietrick tests a pupil's vision in the Home Economics car, 1935-36.

 

 

 


COLLECTION OF NANCY GOODSPEED

Mr. Anderson's reed instruments class in the "High School on Wheels", 1935-36. This wonderful photo by School Nurse Ethel M. Dietrick.

 




COLLECTION OF NANCY GOODSPEED

Students assemble beside the railcars to form the letter "H", 1935-36.

 

 

Helena Junior High School Cafeteria, 1970


PHOTO BY KENNON BAIRD

 

 

THE THIRD HELENA HIGH SCHOOL
1955-Today


Architectural drawing of the current Helena High School, ca. 1953. The somewhat boggy tract of land was once the site of Chinese vegetable gardens.





BRYANT SCHOOL • 1529 Boulder Ave.


The first Bryant School. This building stood from 1885 to 1913, when it was replaced by a new building in the Mission style. That building was destroyed by the 1935 earthquakes...

 




A new building, one in a simpler art-deco inspired design, was erected at a cost of about $70,000 (1936 dollars). If you have a good exterior photo of the "new" Bryant School, please let me know.

 


Bryant School Cafeteria, 1947



This wonderful 1947 photo of the Bryant basement cafeteria is courtesy of the Wes and Carol Synness Collection. A higher resolution version of this image is available via email; drop me a line.

Noted Western author Ralph Beer attended Bryant School in the 1950s, and shares these memories...

I was a lucky boy to have been able to stand in that same chow line a few
years later, with the younger brothers and sisters of the kids in this
photograph, as the heavy ladies and neighborhood grandmas who ran the
kitchen ladled out our lunches of commodity vegetables and hot ground beef
and real mashed potatoes onto heavy porcelain plates.

The lunches were cooked right there in the school basement each day, and the heady smells from the kitchen rose and spread through the hallways like spirits, teasing us and tempting us and making it hard to focus on long division or nouns or fractions. Rome may have conquered the Greeks, but that was genuine Montana hamburger calling our names.

The hot lunch program cost our folks a quarter per day and it was worth it in spades. For some kids, it might have been the one good meal they enjoyed that day. Most of us came from working-class families, our dads employed by the railroad or Caird's foundry or one of the smelters in East Helena. A few moms worked for large employers like the phone company. But what money there was in circulation during the Eisenhower years was snug if not downright tight. A lay-off or a strike could put a hurt on a family with several kids, but those quarters seemed to keep coming in, so us kids could enjoy some hot food in a safe, well-lighted cafeteria with our teachers seated at their own table nearby.

Those hot lunches and some of those teachers, like Mr. Nelson, who taught Sixth Grade, and Miss Dalrimple who taught Fourth and Miss Erickson who taught Third, were among the genuine blessings we enjoyed at Bryant School.




JEFFERSON SCHOOL

The red brick "Old Jeff" elementary school, on the northwest corner of Highland and Dakota, was built in 1891, and was used for Baby Boom student overflow even after the adjacent frame and stucco "New Jeff" was opened in 1949. The old building was demolished in 1971.

 

"New Jeff"• 1023 Broadway • 1951


COURTESY OF KATHRYN FEHLIG
CLICK ON PHOTO FOR A LARGER VERSION IN A NEW WINDOW.

Opened in 1949, the new Jefferson School boasted ramps instead of stairs, air conditioning, varying classroom color schemes (warm colors on the north side, cool colors on the south), tinted windows, recessed fluorescent lighting, lockers in the central corridor, movable desks and chairs, and an "activity alcove" in each classroom. The building was designed by Kalispell, Montana architect Fred A. Brinkman (1883-1970), who also designed Helena's new Broadwater School at 900 Hollins Ave., which likewise opened in 1949. McKinnon-Decker of Helena was the general contractor.


Michael E. Holmes, a student at both schools from 1958-60 remembers Old Jeff....

"Old Jeff was remarkable in that it was one of the few tall brick buildings that survived the 1935 earthquake intact. Another feature which none of the students will ever forget is the enclosed three-story spiral fire escape slide mounted to the outside of the building, which on rare occasions (at least annually) students were able to enjoy. It was a joy to ride down, one of the few vivid memories I retain of early elementary school.

"That and the old wooden desks and creaky floors in Old Jeff; it oozed 19th century charm and you felt like it was a special place, though a bit spooky. Also, in the winter climbing up and down "the hill" without sliding down or slipping was a challenge, particularly if it got icy.

"They don't build them like that any more. Shame."

 

The footprint of the old Jefferson School superimposed on a recent satellite view of the site. Note that the footprint of the new building compliments that of the old, even though they are of vastly different styles.





CARROLL COLLEGE
FOUNDED IN 1909 AS MOUNT ST. CHARLES COLLEGE

Mount St. Charles College was renamed Carroll College in 1932 to honor its founder, Bishop John P. Carroll (1864-1925).



Earthquake Damage to Carroll College, 1935

 

 

Aerial photo of Carroll College, 1930s

 

 

 

Carroll College Campus, 1940s







"Carroll Village" Postwar Housing

Immediately following World War II, Carroll saw a dramatic increase in the enrollment of married students. Housing was found for them in Vancouver Washington., where the Federal Public Housing Administration was in the process of dismantling projects which had housed wartime shipyard workers.



THE FOOTPRINT OF CARROLL VILLAGE SUPERIMPOSED ON A RECENT SATELLITE VIEW

Five buildings, each containing four four-room apartments (which were likely from Vancouver's Burton Homes project) were shipped to Helena and rebuilt by the Carson Construction Co. on College-owned land near the intersection of Euclid and Harrison Ave., where the Lundy Center is now. It was dubbed "Carroll Village".




COURTESY OF CATHEE CRAPO

On the right can be seen several "Carroll Village" units. This view taken from Harrison St., Easter 1962.

 

 

Carroll College, 1960s




 

 

The Carroll Campus, 1970s

 



KESSLER SCHOOL


PHOTO FROM "VALLEYS OF THE PRICKLY PEAR" - 1988 by LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE, INC. - OUT OF PRINT

South side of Kessler School, 1898. Land for this building was donated in 1892 by Nickolas Kessler.
His Kessler Brewery is seen in the distance.


FIRST KESSLER SCHOOL DAMAGED BY EARTHQUAKES IN 1935




North side of Kessler School, post-quake.
It was pulled down, and a new one-story
building was erected on the site.


THE 1936 BRICK BUILDING • 1980s


PHOTO BY KENNON BAIRD

The open house for this building was held Nov. 13, 1936 -- a little over a year after the old school was demolished. It has seen several additions and renovations over the years. It's notable in this view that more than half of the original tall windows have been covered over and/or removed.

 


PHOTO BY KENNON BAIRD

Southwest corner of Kessler School, 1980s. There was once a pint-sized baseball diamond located just to the left of this view.



Kessler School classroom, ca. 2000

 






C. R. ANDERSON SCHOOL
Orginally named the West Side School
1960 - Present


FROM THE 1965 LAST CHANCE STAMPEDE PROGRAM • COURTESY OF KITTY ANN QUIGLEY TAALER

Early view of the West Side School, NW corner of Knight & Cleveland. Constructed from 1958-1960, it was renamed in 1961 for C. R. Anderson, a noted Helena educator. The first Principal of the school was Howard Jacobson, a post he held until 1968.

Several additions have been made to the building over the years. In July of 2005, an earthquake caused moderate damage to a section of wall on the 1965 west addition, delaying the opening of school for several weeks.

Your editor attended C. R. Anderson from 1962-1965. The culture then (apparently officially sanctioned) was one of oppression and violence. Corporal punishment, humiliation and degradation of 7th and 8th grade students - at least male students - was commonplace. It was my first encounter with teachers who had no business being in education; I couldn't wait to get out of this school.




DEACONESS SCHOOL



This building on 11th Avenue was originally the second Mills Hall, part of Intermountain Union College. It was acquired by Intermountain Children's Homes and Services after the 1935 earthquakes destroyed the original Deaconess Home in the Helena Valley. This building served as the Deaconess Home until 1970, when the current South Lamborn St. facility opened.