1919 - City Pavilion - Deer Lodge, MT
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T0SHEA
N 46° 23.922 W 112° 44.433
12T E 366197 N 5139819
This large brick community hall, or pavilion, was built for the city of Deer Lodge by the Milwaukee Road, the second major railroad to each the city.
Waymark Code: WMV807
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 03/11/2017
Views: 0
Deer Lodge was the division headquarters for the Milwaukee Road (MILW), officially known as the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, until their demise in 1980. Here, the MILW was electrified until June 15, 1974, when the conversion to diesel-electric locomotives retired all the line's electric locomotives. At one time Deer Lodge was the site of large railroad yards, shops, the MILW depot and a roundhouse. The roadbed and many of the bridges are still intact across Montana, with BNSF trains passing by daily during the week.
On what was known as the Pacific Extension, which extended the MILW lines in the midwest to the Pacific Ocean, the MILW would have reached Deer Lodge in 1907. Unfortunately for it, the Northern Pacific had passed through more than 20 years previous, in the early 1880s, making Deer Lodge a Northern Pacific town. Possibly it was to curry favour in the town, possibly it was simply to leave its imprint here, but the MILW built this community hall in 1919, donating it to the town. Though apparently no longer in use as a community hall, the solid brick and stone building still stands, one of only two reminders that the MILW had ever been here, the other being the railway depot, now used as a church.
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