| Soldiers' Home Historic District | |
| Nrhp Type: | hd |
| Nocat: | yes |
| Location: | Veterans Drive, Columbia Falls, Montana |
| Coordinates: | 48.3575°N -114.2103°W |
| Builder: | Fred Whiteside |
| Architect: | Charles S. Haire |
| Architecture: | Colonial Revival, Queen Anne |
| Added: | April 21, 1994 |
| Refnum: | 94000385 |
The Soldiers' Home Historic District, a historic Old soldiers' home campus, is located in Columbia Falls, Flathead County, Montana.
The historic district has 9 listed buildings, designed in the Victorian Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles.[1] [2]
Originally called the Montana State Soldiers' Home, and now the Montana Veterans' Home, the institution has served veterans since 1896.[3] The mission of the home is, "to honor the service of Montana’s veterans by serving them in turn in their time of need."[4]
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
In the 1890s, Montana had 25 Civil War veterans living on county poor farms, out of a total of 2,500 veterans. In 1895, the Montana State legislature responded to lobbying by the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) and authorized the establishment of a soldiers' home. Columbia Falls was selected out of a group of eight communities. Its citizens donated $3,100. Additionally, 147 acres of land were donated by the Northern Improvement Co., a subsidiary of the Great Northern Railway.
Charles S. Haire designed the old main building, which was built by Fred Whiteside, a builder and Montana politician, in 1896.
Haire also designed a small hospital in 1900. The hospital became the Commandant's House in 1980. A new, larger hospital built in 1908 has since been demolished. The 1919 Service Building has a chapel, and housed the employees of the home. A cemetery was established in 1897.[4]
A new housing facility for veterans, the Montana Veterans' Home, was opened by Montana Governor Forrest H. Anderson at an official dedication ceremony in 1970.[5] It provides housing and subsistence to veterans, and in some cases, to veterans' spouses.[6]
An E. M. Viquesney statue of a World War I doughboy was moved to the front of the Veterans' Home in 1972. The statue originally stood in front of the Flathead County Courthouse in Kalispell, in Main Street's median.[7]