Montana State University (MSU) was founded in 1893 as the Agricultural College of the State of Montana. Initially housed in a high school and expanded to a vacant store on Main Street, it saw the opening of the first buildings on campus in 1898. These were the Main Building, now Montana Hall, and the Agricultural Experiment Station, now known as Taylor Hall. Both were constructed beginning in 1896. Expanding rapidly, many more buildings and facilities have been added, with expansions and additions continuing to this day. in 1913 MSU was officially renamed the
Montana College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and by the 1920s, the school came to be commonly referred to as
Montana State College.
MSU today occupies an 1,170 acre campus serving nearly 17,000 students, with an Academic staff of over 1,300 and an Administrative staff of over 2,000. The largest research enterprise in the state, MSU offers over 250 Undergraduate programs and more than 115 Graduate programs.
The Montana State University Historic District is comprised of 30 Contributing and 11 Noncontributing buildings, 5 Contributing and 3 Noncontributing Sites and 3 Contributing and 9 Noncontributing Objects, tor a total of 38 Contributing and 23 Noncontributing.
Lewis Hall is home to the Ecology, Computational Biology and Microbiology Departments. Built in 1923, it is named for Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-06. Inside the building are two murals painted by MSU art students in 1942, as well as fish and wildlife displays on the second and fourth floors. One mural depicts prehistoric Montana, while another depicts the fight against rocky mountain spotted fever in Montana, led by head of MSU's entomology department for 31 years, Dr. Robert Allen Cooley. The mural is dedicated to two MSU students who died while studying the disease. Lewis Hall is also home to the University Vertebrate Museum and Herbarium. Both the Fish and Wildlife Management Program Center and the Montana Cooperative Fishery Research Unit are located here, as part of the Department of Ecology.
Renaissance Revival in style, Lewis Hall is one of six buildings to arise on MSU's campus in the 1920s, the others being Roberts Hall (Engineering Building), 1922, Romney Gymnasium, 1922, the Heating Plant, 1922, actually two buildings, and Herrick Hall (Women’s Building), 1926, all also Renaissance Revival in style.
Though renovated extensively inside over the years, all have retained their original Renaissance Revival exteriors. In fact, the
Romney Gymnasium, now known as Romney Hall, has been so extensively renovated that it is now a LEED Gold certified building.
Lewis Hall (Biology Building), 1923
(... one contributing building)
The Italian Renaissance Revival style Lewis Hall stands four-and-one-half stories tall, including a daylight basement and attic. Designed by the Great Falls, Montana firm, Shanley & Baker, the reinforced concrete building measures 66' x 128' and features polychrome rug-face brick cladding laid in a running bond, terra cotta ornamentation, and a gable roof covered in red tile. The gable ridge extends along an east-west line with green tile clad parapets at its ends. Carved rafter tails support the exaggerated overhanging eave. The granite water table forms a continuous sill for the first story windows. A belt course of soldier and rowlock bricks capped by terra cotta separates the first story “base” of the building from the upper stories and serves as a continuous sill for the second story windows.
Paired pilasters extend two stories from the base to their terra cotta capitals of acanthus leaves, evoking the Corinthian order of classical architecture. Each pilaster shaft consists of a stack course of stretcher bricks flanking a stack course of rowlock bricks, with a slightly recessed stack of stretchers between the pilasters. The two corner pilasters on each elevation also have a terra cotta shield with a bas relief sheaf of wheat. The architrave consists of a rowlock and soldier course of bricks capped by terra cotta decorated with alternating pearl and billet molding. On the south facade and rear elevation, the frieze exhibits brick panels with a terra cotta circle in the center, terra cotta accents at the corners above the pilasters, and three “Union Jack” windows above the window bays. The east and west gable ends do not have a frieze, but instead attic story windows and other terra cotta ornamentation. Terra cotta and bricks in a decorative rectangular pattern, with a glazed terra cotta tile in the center, accentuate the spandrels between the second and third stories. The university replaced all the original wood, one-over-one light, double-hung windows with smaller one-over-one modern thermal units with metal frames below metal paneling.
The primary façade contains a recessed entrance set within a protruding two-story gable-roofed porch. Red tile covers the porch roof, while green tile matching the parapet ends of the main building covers the porch’s south gable-end parapet. A stretcher and rowlock course of brick accents the parapet’s roofline. A semi-circular arch framed in terra cotta with bead and reel and rosette patterns frames the recessed entrance. Flanking the arch are three-light globe wall sconces protected by small metal, gabled hoods and circular terra cotta roundels embellished with the letters "LH." Granite steps access the double bronze and glass doors. A painted terra cotta panel detailed with circles and vertical lines separates the doors from the glass transom/tympanum. An iron screen in a stylized floral motif protects this upper glass. On either side of the doors, set within the porch, iron screens in a cross pattern protect vents. There are six windows on either side of the entrance on the first and second story. Above the entrance single pilasters separate three smaller windows flanked by six medium-sized windows. In the center of the frieze is a large terra cotta panel incised with the word "LEWIS." Partially hidden by a large conifer, a weathered concrete retaining wall west of the entrance forms a window well for three basement windows.
The east elevation displays a smaller version of the gabled-roofed entrance porch found on the south façade. The west elevation proves identical except its entrance has been removed to accommodate the one-story annex that connects the 1960 Cooley Laboratory to Lewis Hall. An enclosed, elevated walkway also connects the two buildings on the second story, entering Lewis Hall through a second-story former window opening immediately off-center to the north. Finally, as a result of the site’s slope from east to west, the west elevation also contains six basement level windows.
From the Registration Form