Red Lodge, MT
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member T0SHEA
N 45° 11.214 W 109° 14.757
12T E 637795 N 5005209
Though the present city hall was built in 1939, with the aid of WPA funds, parts of the building contain materials from the 1898 fire hall/city hall.
Waymark Code: WMWCPA
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 08/14/2017
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member iconions
Views: 1
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With the aid of WPA funding, the city of Red Lodge rebuilt their city hall in 1939, the finished building containing the city hall, fire hall, police station and jail. The cost for the building was some $26,000, $10,000 of which was borne by the city. Some of the material from the original building were reused in the construction of the building. A two storey wood framed building with cut stone facing the lower floor walls, the building today houses only city hall, the fire and police departments having been relocated.
Red Lodge, MT The town of Red Lodge was officially established in 1884. But long before the arrival of permanent settlers, this valley was Crow country, serving the Crow Indians each summer as a place to worship, rest and hunt.

When the Rocky Fork Coal Company opened the area’s first mine in 1887, hundreds of immigrants – Finns, Scots, Irish, Italians and Slavs – arrived and dug in. During this boom time, Red Lodge was a lively place, with 20 saloons and a burgeoning population.

In 1897, guests of The Pollard Hotel witnessed the Sundance Kid rob the Red Lodge Bank across the street. Buffalo Bill Cody, William Jennings Bryan, Calamity Jane and Frederic Remington are among those on the hotel’s long and colorful guest register.

The advent of strip mining in southeastern Montana in the 1920s signaled the beginning of the end of the Red Lodge coal boom. In 1924, the West Side Mine closed. The Great Depression forced more mines to close, and in 1943 an underground explosion killed 74 men at the Smith Mine in Bearcreek four miles east of Red Lodge, devastating the community and effectively ending coal mining in Carbon County.

Not to be outwitted by the national economy, Red Lodge denizens came up with a worthwhile alternative to coal: Following the Depression, locally produced bootleg liquor – or “cough syrup” – replaced coal as the town’s lucrative export, supplying “patients” from the Midwest to the California coast. With the decline of mining, the town also began to look to tourism as an answer to its economic woes. Early efforts to draw visitors to the area include the See ‘Em Alive Zoo and the construction of the Beartooth Scenic Byway to Yellowstone National Park, which began in 1931.

By the mid-20th century, tourism, recreation, and ranching replaced coal (and bootlegging) as the town’s main source of income. Today, Red Lodge is still a working agricultural town. Thanks in no small part to the town’s preservation of and appreciation for its colorful past, it’s also a fascinating destination where history is not so much a thing of the past as it is a vibrant part of the present.
From Red Lodge
RED LODGE CITY HALL AND FIRE STATION

"A hook and ladder outfit stored at a central point" and a loosely organized volunteer company served as Red Lodge's defense against fire in 1897. A disastrous fire in 1900, which killed one man and destroyed four brick business blocks, highlighted the need for more comprehensive protection. By 1901, Red Lodge boasted a wooden fire hall, a reorganized volunteer fire department, a municipal water system, two hose carts, one hook-and-ladder truck, and two thousand feet of well-maintained hose. Attached to the fire station was a small city hall. By 1939, the structure had become dilapidated, and the city needed more office space. The city applied to the Works Progress Administration for money to replace the old building. A federal Depression-era jobs program, the WPA funded hundreds of projects in Montana including this one, constructed in part from material salvaged from the original structure. The 1939 building housed the city hall, fire and police departments, and jail. The design features stone, wood, and concrete, which creates a textured façade, and stepped parapets, which visually unite the one- and two-story sections.
Name: City Hall

Address:
1 South Platt Avenue
Red Lodge, MT United States
59068

Date of Construction: 1939

Architect: Unknown government architect

Web Site for City/Town/Municipality: [Web Link]

Memorials/Commemorations/Dedications: Not listed
Visit Instructions:
Post at least one original photo of the building that is a different view from the one on the page and describe your visit, including the date. Add any additional information that you may have about this building. A GPSr photo is NOT required
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iluvfire visited Red Lodge, MT 06/11/2023 iluvfire visited it