Another large and impressive brick and stone church, First Presbyterian was one of five built in Butte in a twenty year span. With a large Gothic arched window on the front, a large rose window on the west side and bright red paneled wood doors set deep within arched stone casements, the church is quite striking in appearance. The large corner bell tower has extensive corbelling from the belfry up, a flat, slightly crenellated, top and small brick towers at each corner resembling chimney pots.
The sanctuary was built with two main entrances, one in the tower and another in the opposite front corner. Each has double wood doors with recessed panels, hung on ornate Norman style wrought iron hinges. Each is recessed within a deep Roman arched stone frame. The transoms are both glass filled, with Gothic styled tracery.
At some unknown time in the past the church ceased to be a Presbyterian Church and was repurposed as a performing arts theatre, the Covellite Theatre. At yet another unknown time that theatre failed and the building stood empty for some time.
In 2016 the defunct theatre was purchased by three theatre loving entrepreneurs and reopened, retaining the name of the Covellite Theatre. Renovations followed, which are to include the replacement of the stained glass which was removed when the church first became a theatre.
First Presbyterian Church
While Butte's personality was taking shape in the form of impressive commercial building, the construction of five major churches in little more than two decades added grace and decorum to the city's demeanor. The Presbyterians, organized in Butte in 1878, commissioned the town's most prominent architect, H. M. Patterson, to design their new church. Patterson, whose style left an indelible print on Butte's streetscape, completed the building in 1896. The wood frame construction with brick veneer is enhanced by a square tower, double arched doors, and an elaborate stained glass window set in Gothic arches.
From the plaque at the church