The new church was built, at least in part, to aid in preserving the old chapel, as regular services were being held, creating much wear and tear on the old building. Substantially larger than the old chapel, the new church is also much more contemporary in style, employing stone façades and contemporary styled stained glass. Low in height, with a simple cross gabled roof, a notable feature if the church is its lack of steeple or bell tower. This was mounted on the ground immediately east of the church, housing a 30 inch C.S. Bell Company bell.
On the east wall, facing the bell tower is a large stained glass window, designed by Father James Barry, installed in 1978. Along the entire north and south walls is stained glass, all designed by Gabriel P. Cartwright, forming the upper half of each wall.
St. Mary’s Church and Rectory
St. Mary’s Church and Rectory/Parish Hall (one contributing building)
The new St. Mary’s Church, built in 1954, sits just south of the old mission church. It is oriented east-west, with the sanctuary’s altar at the west end, and entry at the east end.
The style, like that of the mission chapel, is a vernacular adaptation, reflecting the traditions and influences of its time. The rectangular church has a double cross-gabled roof covered in asphalt shingles and two wings. A parish hall and a rectory, built in 1959, connect with the church at the southwest corner. The style of this cross-gabled one-story addition is compatible with the church. Subtly tucked along the west end of the parking lot at the extreme southern edge of the mission property, it does not detract from the mission grounds. The two separate parts, church and rectory/parish hall, form a roughly L-shaped footprint. Constructed of rock, wood, and glass, the contemporary vernacular architecture offers an interesting contrast to the historic vernacular mission church a few steps away. The stone is of purple, bronze and green, donated and transported to Stevensville by the Northern Pacific Railroad. The stone was quarried from the Northern Pacific pit near Clinton, Montana. Laminated arches form the main supports. Wide, vertical, painted wood siding covers the rectory/parish hall addition and the gable wings at the west end of the church. Narrower painted siding fills the two gable ends. There is a large cross on the roof at the gable’s peak on the building’s east end. The parish hall is the portion of the 1959 addition between the rectory and the church. One brick chimney pierces the roof of the parish hall. The entire building and addition rests on an original concrete foundation.
Sanctuary Interior
The interior wood is of fir and larch. Laminated arches support the roof. Statues and Stations of the Cross are of hand carved wood imported from Germany. A baptistery is at the rear, the choir is to the right of the sanctuary shielded from view by a louvered panel. The altar is of walnut and the sanctuary walls of weld-wood veneer. At the west end, above the altar, the large glass window’s mullions form a triple cross pattern, symbolizing the three crosses of Calvary. This window is placed so that snow-capped St. Mary’s peak in the Bitterroot Range, so named by Father DeSmet in 1841, forms the backdrop. The forty-one stained glass windows that flank the east and west sides tell the history of St. Mary’s Mission from the Jesuits’ founding of the early mission through diocesan pastors’ contributions and the building of the modern church. These windows are fixed and rectangular in shape. One central window on each side is a hopper type window that opens to allow circulation. Gabriel P. Cartwright designed the windows and the William Reinarts Company manufactured them. Peter Stauduhar did the installation and they were formally blessed in 1982 by the Most Reverend Elden F. Curtiss, Bishop of Helena. The chipped glass window at the east end depicting the Sorrowful Mother in Indian garb dominates the sanctuary’s east end.
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.