Taken some time after the school was completed, we believe that the "Then" photo here wasn't taken until the 1950s. Both were taken from Main Street south of the south corner of the school, looking north.
By the time this school was completed Lewistown was already suffering the economic downturn brought on by what would be several years of drought causing many homesteaders to pull up stakes and search for greener pastures. Montana was a full decade ahead of the rest of the country to suffer the drought and depression of the '30s, suffering through those years as well as the dry and dusty '20s.
Lewistown survived, however, as did its junior high school, which continues to open its doors every September to new classes of young teens. Designed by the architectural firm of Link & Haire of Billings and Butte, the building is very typical of the duo's style with substantial Neoclassical Revival and Neoclassical influences throughout (see the description below).
Rather poorly sited, the school is on Main Street, AKA Highway 87, the major thoroughfare through Lewistown. Also, at one time railway tracks, now a rail trail, ran by near the school.
Junior High School
Visually, the main façade is dominated by a large terra cotta architrave around the main entrance and a subtle linear continuous terra cotta entablature at the top of the wall. The door architrave features a very large terra cotta broken scroll pediment that is upward arching and is unified by a traditional acorn finial between the volutes. The pediment is supported by a terra cotta entablature with engaged doric columns flanking the entry door. The frieze of the entablature has raised letters that say "Junior High School". The frieze is articulated above the columns; a single oval rosette decorates the projection. Two terra cotta cartouches occur in the field of the brick wall above the architrave. They have a draped festoon pattern above heraldic ovals that have the date 19 on one and 21 on the other. The round arched entry doors circumscribed by the architrave have a large fanlight in the transom and arched area.
A dressed cornerstone with the date "1921" is visible on the east corner of the structure.
This property is significant because it illustrates patterns of development in the Lewistown school system. J. G. Link & C. S. Haire were the architects for the Lewistown Junior High School.
Until the junior nigh school was built in 1921, the 7th and 8th graders were accommodated in the elementary schools and in the Barracks, (a temporary structure) built after the high school burned in 1918 during World War I hysteria.
The junior high also became the official administration building for the school district. The superintendent and the office personnel were housed, and the Board of Trustees met there until 1978.
The school is poorly sited, at the bottom of the Main Street hill, which was designated a Federal highway after the school was built. The building's proximity to the railroad tracks caused noise and safety problems in the days when many freight trains were in service.
From the NRHP Architecture Inventory Form, Site 202