Missoula County

This month’s selection, the Missoula County Courthouse in Montana.

In 1908-1910 Missoula County built a magnificent Neoclassical courthouse in the center of the town of Missoula. This courthouse style was popular in America in the early 20th Century. Neoclassical designs typically draw inspiration from Greek and Roman styles and are designed to convey a sense of authority. This large courthouse, made of native sandstone, is two stories on an elevated basement. It has an open rotunda through the upper floors with a dome crowned by a clock tower with a two-ton bell and four clocks.

The most unique Missoula interior courthouse feature is the Western mural collection of American frontier painter Edgar Samuel Paxson (1852-1919). In 1912 Paxson was commissioned to paint eight murals in the courthouse which are exhibited in the hallways and along the stairwells. The Paxson murals depict historic Montana events including the Lewis and Clark Exposition, Father Ravalli arriving at Fort Owen, the signing of the Hellgate Treaty and the Salish people leaving the Bitterroot Valley for the Flathead Reservation. Paxson was a friend of fellow Montanan Charles Russell who focused on painting a romantic view of cowboys and range land while Paxon became known for his portraits of fur trappers and Native Americans and was seen to be more faithful to the historic record. Paxson’s eight Western murals were commissioned at a cost of $1000. The second floor  courtroom pictured above was featured in the Yellowstone TV miniseries.

A. J. Gibson was one of Montana’s most prominent architects. He designed the first five buildings of the University of Montana, the Carnegie Public Library in Missoula and the First Presbyterian Church in Missoula. Gibson also designed the Ravalli County Courthouse in Hamilton, MT which was built in 1900.  Today that courthouse is a county museum.