While neither the church, the City of Townsend nor Broadwater County are forthcoming with any real information on the Townsend United Methodist Church we did stumble across a short passage.
One historic neighborhood school building–now a Masonic lodge–also remains, along with many different churches, most of which date to the second half of the twentieth century. North of Broadway is a notable exception, the Victorian Gothic styled Townsend United Methodist Church, again an important survivor from the town’s opening generation of history.
From Montana Historic Landscape
which led us to search old newspapers for any tiny tidbit of help available. We were able to find numerous notices of upcoming church services in the Townsend M.E. Church. The earliest mention of services being held
in the church was from a November 23, 1894 paper. Below is a representative example of the church's notices, this one from Page 5 of the November 19, 1914 edition of the
Townsend Inter-Mountain.
Gold was discovered in the Big Belt Mountains in the northeast corner of Broadwater County in 1864, quickly giving rise to several mining towns. The next bit of excitement to occur came in 1881, with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway. A station was built in Townsend, thereby doubtless sealing its fate as the future county seat. The town was platted in 1882 and many of the residents of the surrounding towns moved their enterprises to Townsend, thereby creating a nearly instant town. From the Montana Historic Landscape passage above we can assume that the church was built in the 1880s, possibly as late as the 1890s.
A quick glance at the building may not reveal its age until one looks up and sees the bell tower. While the sanctuary and the attached hall (doubtless added at a later date) are covered in vinyl siding, the scalloped cedar shingles on the spire and the gablets at the top of the belfry remain in place, as does what appears to be the original woodwork. The spire and belfry are definitely not the work of post 1900 or 1910 carpenters. Also trefoil and quatrefoil designs, as seen on the front gable end, were already out of fashion by the twentieth century. While the three windows on the front are Gothic lancet arched, the windows down the sides of the sanctuary are gabled. We can't say whether this was part of the original design.