| DescriptionLooking N at Montana Hall - Montana State University - 2013-07-09.jpg |
English: Looking north at the south side of Montana Hall — on the campus of Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana.
- As of 2013, Montana Hall houses the President's Office, Registrar's Office, Student Accounts, and other administrative offices.
- Montana State University was created after Bozeman lost a four-way race to be the capital of Montana. As a consolation, the state legislature agreed to found an agricultural college in the city. Local rancher and businessman Nelson C. Story owned the land on which the state capital would have been built, and he donated this land to the state to serve as the university's campus.
- Montana Hall was the second building to be constructed on the campus (the first was the Agricultural Experiment Station, now known as Taylor Hall). John C. Paulsen, State Architect, designed the structure in the Old English vernacular styel. The cornerstone was laid on October 21, 1896. The structure was built with compressed red brick and sandstone trim. it is 90 feet long and 28 feet wide, and has four stories and a full basement. The stone foundations are two feet thick, and half exposed above-ground. Interior walls were reinforced with 2-by-4s. The first floor's exterior walls are 20 inches thick, while the second and third floor's exterior walls are 16 inches thick. Interior walls are brick, and are 12 inches thick in the basement and first floor, 8 inches thick on the second floor, and 4 inches thick on the third floor. The main entrance is on the north side, and consists of two, eight-foot-tall oak doors set in a brick arch and capped by a fanlight. Single-panel oak doors permit access on the east and west sides. (The east entrance was obliterated by a subsequent addition.) The steeply pitched (66 degrees) roof is gabled, and sports a brick chimney.
- Nine stone steps lead up to the main entrance. The president's office was original in the room east of the vestibule. It featured a marble fireplace. An administrative office occupied the room to the west of the vestibule. In an office in the northeast corner of the building were more administrative offices, while in the northwest corner was the registrar's office and bookstore. Three large classrooms occupied the length of the south side of the first floor. Nine wooden steps led to the second floor. A hallway running the length of the building gave access to the east and west stairways, which in turn provided access to the basement and third floors.
- The library, more offices, and more classrooms occupied the second floor. The auditorium, accessed by the west stairs, occupied 75 percent of the third floor. It was 68 feet wide and 31 feet deep, and flanked on the north and south by small meeting rooms. By 1921, a raised platform was built on the east side, reached by five risers. Behind the platform were five risers leading down to a hallway. The hallway was flanked by large rooms on the north and south, and led to the east stairs. The basement housed more classrooms and offices.
- All the internal staircases were wood with oak railings and balustrades. The floors were hardwood, with tile in the vestibule. Walls were plaster over brick, although the vestibule was unplastered decorative brick. Interior doors were oak set in wood frames, and mouldings were carved wood.
- The structure was electrified from its construction. Electricity was supplied by an experimental generator in the basement. Originally, warm air was circulated throughout the building via flues and a fireplace in the basement. This proved unworkable, however, and steam radiators were installed in the early 1920s.
- It was known as Main Building until it was renamed Montana Hall in 1914. When completed in April 1898, Main Hall housed an auditorium (in the upper floor's loft space) that sat 600, a library, and classrooms and offices for the departments of art, business, domestic science, English, mathematics, mechanical drawing, and modern languages. In the ensuing years, a two-story fireproof vault was added to the southwest corner of the building to house registrar records.
- In the 1920s, a curved, unpaved drive led up the hill on the north side of Montana Hall to allow vehicular access. Dusty in the summer and so slick with snow and ice it was not navigable in winter, President Roland Renne had it removed in 1943. (It was one of his first acts as president of the college.) The Montana State Architect subsequently created a plan that turned Garfield Avenue to the south of the building into the main avenue through the campus and the main approach to Montana Hall. The area north of the building became a grassy lawn. The west entrance now because the hall's main entrance.
- Some time in the 1920s or 1930s, a "temporary" one-story wood frame structure was built on the east side of Montana Hall to provide much-needed office space. This structure rendered the east entrance and east stairs unuseable.
- Montana Hall has played a significant role at MSU. It acts as the center of campus, and its distinctive silhouette is recognized as the symbol of the university. In 1915, engineering students used the steeple of Montana Hall to survey nearby Mount Baldy and position the gigantic white “M” in the the Bridger Mountains. Following Bozeman's terrible 1927 earthquake, the cupola was removed. (Legend has it that rambunctious students took a cow to the upper floors, and found that the cow would not go down stairs afterwards. So the cupola was removed and the cow lowered to the ground. This is apocryphal.) During the 1993 centennial of Montana State University, a new cupola was installed along with chimes which ran on the hour. A new roof was put on the structure in 2007.
- Montana Hall underwent a restoration in 2011. All window panes were replaced with energy-efficient ones. The exterior brick was cleaned of lichen and dirt, mortar repointed, and lead seals applied to vertical brick joints to prevent future water damage.
- However, a 2001 engineering study showed that Montana Hall needs at least $21.5 million in major repair. Among these are significant repairs to walls, floors, and other interior fixtures; upgrades to the electrical, HVAC, mechanical, and plumbing systems; adaptive renovations to enhance the lifespan of the building; fix life-threatening safety issues; serious structural repairs to fix sagging walls and floors; bringing the structure up to current building codes; and make it ADA-complaint. (ADA fixes alone would cost $1.5 million.) A $600,000 fire suppression system is also badly needed.
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