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 Myrna Loy Center for the Performing Arts - Helena, MT Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 46° 35.155 W 112° 02.145
12T E 420650 N 5159670
Built beginning in 1891, the Lewis and Clark County Jail kept many ne'er-do-wells under lock and key for nearly a century.
Waymark Code: WM109DJ
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 03/25/2019
Views: 0
The Place:
A request for bids for a new Lewis and Clark County Jail was issued by the county in February of 1891, with construction commencing later that year and completion taking place the next year. R. A. Bell and Company, agents for the Detroit Safe and Lock Company, tendered the winning bid of $43,495. As one would expect, the jail is a very substantial appearing building, built of locally quarried granite. Like the courthouse across Ewing Street, four years the jail's senior, the jail was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, but by different architects, this time the Helena architectural firm of Paulson and McConnell. Its appearance today is more or less exactly that which it presented upon completion.
The jail was closed in the early 1980s when a new detention centre was built nearby, standing empty for just a few short years before an enterprising group of artists and entertainers saw it as a potential new home. Beginning with a fundraiser in April of 1989, the jail ultimately became the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing Arts, which it remains today. The newspaper article further below supplies further detail on that transformation.
The Person:
MYRNA LOY
MONTANA’S FIRST LADY OF FILM
Montana’s First Lady of Film was born Myrna Williams, on August 2, 1905, in Radersburg, Montana, 40 miles southeast of Helena. Her father, David Williams, was the youngest person ever elected to the Montana State legislature.
At age seven, Myrna moved with her father, mother, and brother to Helena, where they lived on 5th Avenue, a few blocks from here. Myrna Williams made her stage debut at age twelve at Helena’s old Marlow Theater in a dance she choreographed, based on “The Blue Bird” from the Rose Dream Operatta.
At the age of 13, Myrna’s father died of influenza and the rest of the family moved to Los Angeles. She was educated in L.A. at the Westlake School for Girls, where she caught the acting bug. She started at the age of 15 when she appeared in local stage productions in order to help support her family. Some of the stage plays were held in the now famous Grauman’s Theater in Hollywood. Mrs. Rudolph Valentino happened to be in the audience one night. The rest, as they say, is Wikipedia.
On December 14, 1993, Myrna Loy passed away in New York City during surgery. By the time Myrna passed away at the age of 88, she had appeared in a phenomenal 129 motion pictures. She is buried in Forestvale Cemetery here in Helena.
From the Myrna Loy Center
Nuggets From Helena:
From the Lewis and Clark County Jail
to the Myrna Loy Center
for the Performing Arts
MIKE SHIELDS | May 7, 2018
On a Saturday evening in April of 1989, Helenans gathered at the Montana Club for a gala event kicking off a fundraising drive which would convert the then vacant 1891 Lewis and Clark County jail into the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing Arts. Over the next two years, more than $1.5 million would be raised to repurpose the historic jail into a state-of-the-art venue for cinema and the performing arts which honors one of Helena's most famous citizens – Myrna Loy.
The saga of the Myrna Loy Center is unique. The successful conversion of the historic jail into the arts center would become a sterling example of historic preservation and building repurposing.
Over the decades, fire and earthquake destroyed a number of lavish and unusual historic buildings in Helena's central business district and within the city's Westside “mansion district”. More than 240 structures in the downtown area were lost to Urban Renewal in the 1970s alone. Saving the jail was the brainchild of two unlikely characters: Arnie Malina and Steve Browning. Both were transplanted Montanans – one from New York and the other a Hoosier from Indiana. Arnie Malina arrived in Helena in 1973 and within two years had founded the Helena Film Society, the Second Story Cinema, and eventually planted the seeds for converting the century old jail into an arts center. Malina would become the Myrna Loy Center's first managing director.
History of the Jail
In September 1890, the Helena Daily Herald announced at the November election that Lewis and Clark County voters would be asked whether the County should build a new $60,000 jail. The results of the election were, as recorded by the Board of Canvassers, 2,715 for the new jail to 631 against construction of the new facility. Five bids for construction of the new jail were opened on April 23, 1891 with R. A. Bell and Company, agents for the Detroit Safe and Lock Company, winning the contract with the lowest bid of $43,495. Both the recently completed County Courthouse and the jail were constructed of “Ten Mile” granite from a local quarry and were impressive additions to the capital city landscape. The jail proved to be a good investment, serving as the county jail for nearly a century.
Naming and Construction of the Myrna Loy Center
Naming the historic jail the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing Arts was an integral facet of the fundraising effort. One of the first issues which confronted the Board of Directors of the Helena Film Society was: what to call the new performing arts center? One couldn't continue to refer to it as the “Old Jail;” this was not a name which would encourage prospective donors to contribute to the cause. Following a number of naming sessions, the Board came up with the idea of naming the new arts center for Myrna Loy, a world renowned movie actress who had grown up in the Helena area and had kept an association with Helena after leaving for Hollywood in the 1920s...
From the Helena Independent Record
Year it was dedicated: 1990
Location of Coordinates: At the centre
Related Web address (if available): [Web Link]
Type of place/structure you are waymarking: Building
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