W.F. Cogswell Building - Helena, MT - People-Named Places on Waymarking.com

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W.F. Cogswell Building - Helena, MT

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Posted by:  T0SHEA

12T E 422158 N 5159547

Essentially occupying a full city block, the Cogswell Building was built in two stages, the original section in 1954-55, with an addition in 1981.

The Place:
The building is shaped somewhat like a "T" with the arms bent downward ad a 45 degree angle, one bent a further 45 degrees and extended. Known also as the "State Laboratory Building", we suspect that it houses laboratories for various government departments.

W. F. Cogswell Building

State Laboratory Building / W. F. Cogswell Building (24LC2191); 1954-1955, Addition, 1981 (Contributing Building)
The M-shaped Cogswell Building consists of the original V-shaped building constructed in 1954 and a rectangular wing added to the back (south) elevation in 1981. Designed in the Stripped Classical style by Vincent H. Walsh, the original reinforced concrete building has a flat, built-up roof, a concrete foundation and smooth concrete walls with a stucco finish. It is two stories tall with a full basement and includes a north-facing main wing, which is approximately 150’ long and 50’ wide, flanked by two wings extending to the southwest and southeast. Like the main wing, the east wing is about 150’ long and 50’ wide. It has an approximately 84’ x 30’ one-story extension attached to the south end of its rear (southwest) elevation. This extension is original to the building. The west wing is also about 150’ long and 50’ wide, although about 25’ of its south end is oriented perpendicular to the main wing and not at an angle. An approximately 50’ x 50’ one-story extension, which is original to the building, is attached to the south end of the west wing. A second-story was added to the north side of its roof at a later date. The 1981 Addition was designed by Davidson & Kuhr in the Modern style. It is approximately 170’ long and 80’ wide. It is also two stories with a full basement and is finished in precast concrete panels, likely on a steel frame.
From the NRHP Continuation Sheet

The Person:
Doctor a driving force behind many medical laws, programs
Montana was still a fledgling state when Dr. William F. Cogswell arrived to practice medicine and to become a pioneer in the public health field.

A year after receiving his medical degree in 1894 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cogswell came to Montana to practice in the coal mining camps of Sand Coulee and Stockett. Later he was company physician for the Jardine Mining Co. and was in private practice in the Wilsall-Clyde Park area until 1908 when he went to Livingston as Park County health officer.

By 1912 he began a 33-year career with the Montana Board of Public Health as chairman of the board of entomology for research in spotted fever. As executive secretary he worked toward construction of a laboratory in Hamilton, which became known for research and control of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The Legislature appropriated $60,000 to construct the lab in 1927. It was sold to the federal government in 1932 and now is part of the National Institutes of Health.

Early in the flu epidemic of 1918-1919, the U.S. Public Health Service responded to Cogswell’s request for additional doctors to treat expected flu cases. Eight doctors were ordered to report to the state secretary of the health board. Cogswell also got 12 Montana physicians as volunteers for assignments across the state. The volunteer physicians, who had been deferred from military service during World War I, were required to serve at a dollar a day in the Volunteer Medical Services Corps.

Regarded as a great healer by the Blackfeet, Cogswell was adopted into the tribe and given the name Stumik-i-nuk-shin or Chief Little Bull in 1926.

When Cogswell died in 1956, Dr. C.D. Carlyle Thompson, then-executive officer and secretary of the state health board, credited Cogswell with "many of Montana’s existing public health laws, public health rules and regulations and public health programs." In 1964 the Legislature unanimously authorized naming the health department building in Helena the W.F. Cogswell Building.

Born: Dec. 5, 1868, in Port Williams, Nova Scotia
Died: May 25, 1956, in Helena
Originally from the Great Falls Tribune, the page no longer exists.