Mountain View Methodist Episcopal is one of two landmark Methodist churches. Cornish miners built the Romanesque-style Trinity Methodist Church in 1889 in Walkerville.
Methodist mine owners, Uptown merchants, and professionals attended the Mountain View Methodist Church (1899-1900, Link and Donovan have been identified as architects) in the middle of Uptown’s bustling business district near the county courthouse. Butte Art Glass Company designed, built, and installed its wonderful stained glass. ...in 2012, both congregations obviously were struggling with members, and the cost of maintaining large historic buildings. They tried to get by by treating the two churches as part of the same congregation, but in 2015, the congregations closed the churches.
From Montana historical landscape.
The once regal bell steeple/bell tower for many years supported an ornate octagonal wood belfry and steeple. Today the tower stops at the top of the bricks, with a simple flat top. We have found a small reproduction of an old photo at the Butte-Silver Bow archives in which the church still wears its belfry and spire, date unknown. We've yet to find a discussion on their demise.
Closed as Mountain View United Methodist Church in 2015, the deconsecrated church is scheduled to become a concert venue due to the building’s supreme acoustics. See
this news article for details on the proposed acquisition of the church and creation of a concert facility. As of October, 2015 the
church was sold, the buyer's intention being to "bring a level of entertainment that will work..."
Mountain View Church: Music mecca
in the making?
Renata Birkenbuel | Aug 18, 2015
Is Mountain View Church a music mecca in the making?
The Mountain View United Methodist Church, 203 W. Quartz St., closed on July 5 to the great dismay of long-time parishioners.
But due to the building’s supreme acoustics and interior design, a local citizens' group is trying to breathe new life into the building with an Aug. 22 showcase concert at the deconsecrated church.
In the early stages of organizing, the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts steering committee is in the midst of brainstorming how to acquire the 1899 church that longtime music teacher and musician Gary Funk of Florence said rivals many of the exquisite churches of Europe where he’s performed.
While sale prices are not firm, McDermott said he and the defunct Mountain View and Trinity church boards discussed a range of about $150,000 for Mountain View and between $40,000 and $50,000 for the also recently closed Trinity United Methodist Church, 971 N. Main St. Trinity was built in 1889.
The last concert held in the church was a benefit for Suicide Prevention Committee last May. The Tech Choral Union performed Gabriel Faure’s Requiem, raising $689 for the local group and $234 for the Pintler Suicide Prevention and Awareness Committee in Anaconda.
From the Montana Standard