Wheatland County Senior Citizens Center - Harlowton, MT
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T0SHEA
N 46° 26.091 W 109° 49.874
12T E 589788 N 5143027
On the corner of 1st Street and Central Avenue, what was once the Musselshell Valley National Bank once stood cater corner to the Graves Hotel, a National Register Hotel once the social hub of the community.
Waymark Code: WM1083Y
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 03/18/2019
Views: 0
Today the building is home to the Wheatland County Senior Citizens Center. The tipoffs that this was once a bank are the obvious ones - an angled corner entrance facing the major downtown street, a corner lot, always prized by bankers (and land speculators who, because of this, were able to charge a premium price for corner lots) and the Greek style portico over the entrance, supported by a pair of Ionic columns. The building began to arise from the ground in early march of 1909. By early April concrete forms were under construction. Fixtures for the bank arrived late August. By mid January of 1910 the building was sufficiently complete to host a meeting of the board of directors in the boardroom. The upstairs, which was divided into offices, was completed in March of 1910.
The Musselshell Valley National Bank soon became the The First National Bank of Harlowton, but the building itself barely changed. The most recent mention of the bank we have found was a short notice on an upcoming shareholders meeting in the January 09, 1914 issue of the Harlowton News.
The bank must have disappeared around that time, the building becoming home to a variety of businesses over the years. We have no information on when the Seniors Center came to the building. From their website, we learn that they are:
Open 8-1 Tuesday-Friday. Coffee, cookies, social hour in the morning. Noon meal, meals on wheels, Senior van for in and out of town trips. Group activities: exercise genealogy, cards, and crafts. Holiday meals provided.
