Roundup Central School - Roundup, MT - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

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Roundup Central School - Roundup, MT

in U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Posted by:  T0SHEA

12T E 688628 N 5146633

Initially a grades 1 to 12 school and finally an elementary school, Roundup Central School finally outlasted its usefulness and has been closed, hopefully to see the door to a new and perhaps less demanding life open.

The Roundup Central School was built in two stages, in 1911 and 1913. The west wing (left wing in the photos) was built in 1911 and when, in 1913, the townspeople discovered they still didn't have enough school, the east, right, wing was added. At the time the only school in town, it was used for all twelve grades until 1918, when, with construction of still more schools, it became an elementary school and junior high school for many years, then later an all elementary school, which it remained until its recent closure.

The decision to finally abandon the school and build anew was made about 2015, in 2015 the town was looking at proposals for the building's repurposing and, in 2016 it was officially declared abandoned by the school district. A new school has been built at 401 11th Ave East. At present we have no knowledge of the disposition of this school. The most recent known proposal was for conversion to residential, office and retail condominiums.

Built of large native sandstone blocks, the hipped roofed structure has a large central foyer serving as the entrance, above which is the wood framed bell tower, with a square, flared eave roof above, topped with a tall pole finishing in a ball finial. The open sided belfry still shows a large bell within, with a rope still attached and running down the tower, ready to be pulled by the next prankster.

Roundup Central School

The 1911-1913 school was constructed in two phases. In 1911, the rectangular, hipped-roof "west wing" was constructed. Its nine rooms soon proved inadequate to house the increasing student population, and two years later, the "east wing" was finished. A central hallway and staircases connect the wings. A tall corbelled brick chimney pierces the north (rear) slope west of center. A wood-frame bell tower, topped with a Queen Anne style flared pyramidal roof, protrudes from the south slope of the roof, above the main, centered entry. The building sports Neo-Georgian windows and Mission-style parapet walls above the north ancj south entries. The massive, quarry-faced, cut stones reflect Neo-Romanesque trends in architecture during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The wide eaves and low-slung hipped roof, however, acknowledge the popularity of Prairie elements as well. Originally, windows throughout the building were woodframed one-over-one light double-hungs. They were replaced with fixed, metal-framed, three-light windows during the late twentieth century.
From the NRHP Nomination Form