Dedicated on October 28, 1866, this little log chapel was built primarily by Salish people under the direction of Brother Claessens, the design primarily that of Father Ravalli. In 1879 the sanctuary was lengthened to a total of 46 feet by Brother Claessens, doubling it in size. While the mission was closed in 1891, the chapel continued in use until 1954, when a new and much larger church was built to the south.
Except for the domed belfry, one would be unlikely to identify this as a church when passing by.
The bell tower is an elongated, upright rectangle added to the front façade and capped with an open, domed belfry. The tower rises to 25 feet and has an open entry sheltering the double, four-panel doors that serve as entrance to the church. This vestibule is 6’ 2” x 6’1/2” and forms the bottom part of the belfry. The middle section has tall, arched, paired openings filled with lattice on the three visible sides of the tower. The upper, domed portion of the tower consists of structural timbers connected with wooden pegs and painted white. The dome is of random-width boards covered with building felt and painted. A cross crowns the dome. The original cross, made by Father Ravalli in 1880, was removed so it could be preserved. In 2003, a replica replaced Father Ravalli’s original cross. The original bell, 28 inches in diameter, came from the Foundry of Cincinnati in 1879. The bell is still rung occasionally.
From the NRHP Registration Form
Today the original (contributing) components of the mission consist of the restored chapel/residence (Logs from the first mission were utilized to build the present church.), Father Ravalli's log house/pharmacy, Chief Victor's cabin, the cemetery, including Father Ravalli's grave, the Indian Burial Plot, and two trees, Father Ravalli's Crabapple Tree and Wolf River Apple Tree, as well as a stone survey marking the cemetery’s east boundary.
In order to preserve the original chapel a new church was built on the site in 1954. Beside it is the church's bell, hung in a stand alone bell tower. Both contribute to the historic district.
Mission Church
St. Mary’s Mission Church (previously listed October 1970)
The present St. Mary’s Church was built for the Salish and “others who desire to hear divine service.” The chapel dedication took place on October 28, 1866, and the first wedding on December 27th. Soon after, a study and living quarters consisting of two rooms were added to the rear of the chapel. These two rooms remain today. Behind the living quarters were a kitchen, blacksmith’s shop and several farm buildings that no longer exist. While Brother Claessens directed Indian laborers who did the building, Father Ravalli planned, designed, and decorated the interior of the current St. Mary’s church. The kitchen portion was carefully reconstructed circa 1982. It is a careful reconstruction planned by historic architects and enhances the overall appearance and enriches the visitor’s experience.
Brother Claessens left St. Mary’s on reassignment in 1877 but returned in 1879 to enlarge the mission church. The addition doubled the length to a total of 46 feet. Like the original chapel, the addition was constructed of hewn logs chinked with mortar, but the new front was covered in clapboard. A six-foot enclosure around the centered front door rose to a tower twenty-five feet high. The bell in the domed belfry, shipped from Cincinnati, could be heard from a far distance.
The log church consists of three sections: the chapel, the study and living quarters, and a reconstructed kitchen. The individual parts are easily distinguished on the north and south walls by the individual gabled rooflines and the finished corners of half-dovetail hewn logs on each section. The log walls on both the north and south facades are approximately 3 feet thick. Wall construction of all sections is of hewn logs 9 inches thick joined with pegs and chinked with clay. All window heads are slightly arched with wooden surrounds, mullions, and sills painted white. Door surrounds are also all painted white. Wood shingles cover the three roof sections. The entire mass sets on a concrete foundation, added circa 1980s, to better preserve the resource.
Various other buildings including a kitchen, blacksmith shop, and a barn were attached to the living quarters at the rear. None of these survive. The kitchen addition, however, added c. 1983 behind the 1860s living quarters and study, closely resembles the original kitchen that once stood there.
From the NRHP Nomination Form
The story of St. Mary's Mission begins in 1823, when twelve Iroquois, employed as trappers by the Hudson's Bay Company, remained with the Salish through the winter of 1823-24. Exposed to Christianity 200 years previous, they told the Salish stories of Christianity and of the "Black Robes", the missionaries who taught them. The Salish proved to be an interested audience and, between 1831 and 1839 they sent four delegations to St. Louis in an attempt to obtain a Black Robe of their own.
On September 24, 1841, Father Pierre Jean DeSmet, together with his fellow Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Gregory Mengarini and Nicolas Point, and three Lay Brothers arrived in the Bitterroot valley with their belongings and supplies in three carts and a wagon, the first vehicles to enter the area. They established the first white settlement in what was to become Montana, on the east bank of the Bitterroot river, immediately west of the present town of Stevensville.
The fathers built two chapels, residences and outbuildings, and began farming, planting wheat, oats, potatoes and garden crops. From Fort Vancouver they brought into Montana the first cattle, swine and poultry. A third chapel was under construction by 1846 but soon trouble with the Blackfeet forced the closure of the mission, the entirety being sold in November 1850 to John Owen, a former army sutler, for $250.00.
It was sixteen years later (1866) when Father Joseph Giorda, Superior for the Rocky Mountain area, called back Father Ravalli and Brother William Claessens and re-established St. Mary's Mission about a mile south of Fort Owen. Brother Claessens built a little chapel, the fourth he had built for St. Mary's, to which he attached a study, dining room, kitchen and a story and a half barn. Father Giorda made the "new" St. Mary's the Jesuit mission headquarters for the Rocky Mountain province. In 1879 an addition to the front of the building doubled the size of the chapel. (The entire Mission complex has been restored to that date - the peak of its beauty.)
The mission served the Salish people until their forced removal in 1891, during that time teaching them methods of farming and gardening to aid in their survival following the demise of the buffalo.
A Visitor's Center with gift shop, research library, art gallery and museum was built on the site in 1996.
Italicized sections above are from
St. Mary's Mission, Inc.