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 Lavina Post Office - 59046 - Lavina, MT Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 46° 17.668 W 108° 56.288
12T E 658804 N 5128831
Housed in a little wood framed building on Main Street, the Lavina State Bank died before reaching its teens, thereby making way for the post office.
Waymark Code: WMWA3X
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 07/31/2017
Views: 0
The Lavina State Bank was chartered in 1911 and, like so many Montana banks begun in the same era, failed to live through the 1920s. They all had one major thing in common: all depended heavily on agriculture for a client base. When depression followed drought and grasshoppers, the farms failed, taking the banks with them, this one in 1923. Many that did manage to survive the '20s succumbed to the Dirty Thirties.
After the bank's failure in 1923 the building apparently remained empty for only a short time, when the post office moved in, remaining until 1960. In 1938 the Freemasons bought the building and have met there continuously to this day. In 1995 the Ryegate Temple Lodge joined the Lavina lodge, forming Lavina-Temple Lodge #101, its current identity.
As best we can tell this would have been the third post office in Lavina. The first, location unknown, would have been opened about 1908, with the inception of the village of Lavina. The second was operated out of the Slayton Mercantile, immediately north from here across First Avenue, from 1910 until 1923, when the bank failed and the post office moved into the building. In 1960 a new post office building was built across the street. In 1999 the present Lavina Post Office was built a block north, right on the edge of town.
Though Lavina State Bank was one of hundreds of Montana banks to fail during the early 1920s, the building continued to serve the Lavina community as a post office, and after 1938, as the Lavina Masonic Lodge as well. The building is an important local representation of the development of commerce during the homestead "boom" of the 1910s, and the devastations of drought and depression in the early 1920s. It gains additional significance as a community hub in its incarnations as the local post office and Masonic Hall.
Throughout its occupancy in the bank building, the post office served important functions as a physical reminder of the government presence in Lavina, continued faith in the vitality of the town, and a community gathering place, even during the economically depressed 1920s and 1930s.
The original post office safe remains in the building and on display.
Until recently, the historic appearance of the building was buried beneath vinyl siding and masonite. In 2003, using historic photographs and as much of the original material as possible, the Masons of the Lavina Lodge began the restoration of the building.
As a result of this restoration effort, the building once again displays its historic appearance. The two-story wood-frame building features narrow clapboard siding, painted a creamy tan, with darker tan corner boards, trim, and sashes. Its flat roof slopes gently from the front (east) elevation to the rear (west). A narrow milled cornice circles the building at the roofline. A tall, narrow brick chimney pierces the roof near the southeast corner. In 1938, a two-story addition extended the building to the west.
The Bank's east elevation features a vintage, wood entry door on its north side. The door contains a single, plate glass window. Above the door is a large, transom filled with a single fixed light. Two shallow concrete steps lead from the sidewalk to the door. Centered on the south side of the first story is a large display window, featuring a single plate glass fixed sash below a fixed one-light transom. The Masonic Lodge members recently painted the words "BANK OF LAVINA" in gold lettering with black highlights across the lower pane of glass. The second story of the east elevation contains two evenly-spaced one-over-one double-hung windows.
From the NRHP Continuation Sheet
LAVINA STATE BANK
The arrival of the Milwaukee Railroad in 1908 established Lavina as an important regional center. D. W. Slayton’s Mercantile and L. C. Lehfeldt’s Adams Hotel were the cornerstone businesses of the bustling community. Slayton and Lehfeldt, along with Arthur C. Bayers, H. J. Ries, and L. Sandsmark, established a bank to serve the growing region. This two-story frame building, built in 1908, suited the new financial institution. In April of 1909, the bank moved its furniture in, installed the safe, and distributed shares. Chartered in 1911, the bank opened a branch in Ryegate and through the first half of the prosperous 1910s aided homesteaders and ranchers. When the first drought descended on the region in 1918, the bank pulled most homesteaders through. Slayton noted in his diary that the bank “charged off a lot of bad notes.” As drought and depression took its toll, the bank—like hundreds of others across Montana—closed in 1923. The sturdy two-story building, however, continued to serve as the post office. As a natural social center, it became the heart of the community where neighbor met neighbor. In 1938, the Freemasons purchased the building and added onto the back, converting the upstairs space to accommodate their lodge meetings. Lavina Lodge #107, founded in 1916, met on the second floor, and, until 1960, the post office occupied the storefront. The Ryegate Temple Lodge #101 and Lavina Lodge #107 combined in 1995 to form Lavina-Temple Lodge #101, prompting careful restoration of this community treasure. The building today, crisp and clean on the streetscape, evokes the ambiance of another era.
From the NRHP plaque at the building
Type of structure:: Stand Alone
re-enter Zip Code here:: 59046
Current Status:: Former Historic Location
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