Great Falls High School (or GFHS) is a public high school for grades 9 through 12 located in Great Falls, Montana. Established in 1890, it was the city's first high school. The school's original building, constructed in 1896, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. GFHS began construction on its current building in 1929 and occupied it in the fall of 1930. The high school marked its 80th year in the structure during the 2010–2011 school year. The school's current building, constructed in 1930, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in March 2013.
History
Founding and first high school building Great Falls was founded in 1883. Businessman Paris Gibson surveyed the city in 1883 and platted a permanent settlement the south side of the river.Robison, p. 25. It was incorporated on November 28, 1888.Federal Writers' Project, p. 150. By 1890, Black Eagle Dam had been built within the city limits on the Great Falls of the Missouri River, a meat packing industry (the largest between St. Paul, Minnesota, and Spokane, Washington) had arisen, a railway had come to town, and a copper smelter had been built. The city's public school system was established in 1886. That year, the city opened the Whittier Building (later known as Whittier Elementary School) and began holding ungraded educational instruction for all students there.Bureau of Agriculture, Labor and Industry, p. 306. Accessed 2011-05-06.
Great Falls High School was founded in the fall of 1890 by the city of Great Falls after four teenage girls (newly arrived in the city) asked to receive a high school public education.Superintendent of Public Instruction, p. 65. Accessed 2011-05-06. The four young women constituted the first class, which met in a corner of a classroom in the Whittier Building (which, by that time, featured instruction in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades). By September 1892, Great Falls High School was an independent school within the city public school system. Its 23 students also had a specified course of instruction (rather than general classes).
In 1896, the Great Falls Public Schools built the first Great Falls High School building. City voters passed an initiative in 1893 to sell bonds to build a high school, but the Panic of 1893 delayed construction."About Us: Our History." Paris Gibson Square. 2009. Accessed 2010-05-06. A design by local architect William White was chosen over three other proposals. White's Romanesque Revival three-story structure featured a small central circular building, two rectangular wings, and an eight-story, four-faced clock tower. Construction on the building, located at 1400 First Avenue North, began in 1894. The high school was built of gray sandstone obtained from quarries near both Helena and Great Falls.Baumler, p. 33. Accessed 2010-05-06. The walls, which were thick at the bottom of the building but only thick at the roof, were sunk into the earth and stood on shale bedrock. To compact the foundation's backfill, a herd of sheep was driven around the structure 100 times. Wood for the interior supports, roof, and steps were cut from massive trees logged in the Rocky Mountains and floated down the Missouri River. The finished building featured a tin mansard roof (molded and painted to look like tile), gables, and an attic suspended from the roof joists. The interior woodwork was solid oak, all rooms had high wainscoting, the solid doors were thick, and highly detailed molded pediments were emplaced over each door. Ornate brass doorknobs and hinges were used throughout the building, and heat was supplied by cast iron radiators with delicate, filigreed covers. The building (whose original cost was estimated at $59,940) was completed by McKay Brothers in 1896 at a total cost of $110,000. The structure, which was designed to educate 500 students, contained 14 classrooms, a physical laboratory, a chemical laboratory, an art studio, and an assembly hall that could seat 400. A boiler system was installed in the basement.
The first class of nine boys and 37 girls helped open the school on November 1, 1896. Helen Edgerton was the first principal. The graduating class of 1897 (the high school's first) contained five students, but commencement ceremonies were held in the Great Falls Opera House because the crowd attending graduation was so large.
A brick annex, designed by W.R. Lowery, was constructed against the high school's south side in 1913 at a cost of $200,000. At this time, the boiler system was moved from the basement of the high school to the area between the main building and the annex. An urban legend (which may have begun as early as the 1910s) began to circulate that the old boiler room was turned into a swimming pool, and that a student drowned in the pool—leaving the high school haunted. An investigation in the 1990s revealed that although student Grant Mill from Great Falls High School did drown in 1915, he did not drown in a fictitious pool in the basement but rather in the Missouri River.Baumler, p. 34-36. The clock tower was removed in 1916 after its massive weight began to compromise the building.
Great Falls High School moved into a new building in 1931. The old building was renamed Paris Gibson Junior High School, but the junior high school vacated the premises in 1975 for a new building at 2400 Central Avenue(The former Central Catholic High School ).Robison, p. 48. In 1975, the building became the home of the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 1976.National Park Service, p. 301.
Current building In 1927, the Great Falls public school system sought voter approval to issue bonds to build a new high school, but this initiative was defeated."Great Falls High School." Great Falls High School Bison Football. No date. Accessed 2011-05-06. The bond issue was brought before voters again in 1928, and it passed.Wilmot, Paula. "Community Banded Together to Weather the 'Dirty '30s'." Great Falls Tribune. May 9, 2010. Construction on the $1 million building began in 1928 and continued through 1929.Les Johnson o/b/o Amanda Johnson v. Great Falls Public Schools. Final Order. HRC Case No. 9504007138. Human Rights Commission of the State of Montana. September 10, 1998, p. 3. Accessed 2011-05-06.Wilmot, Paul. "1920s Proved to Be Eventful in Great Falls, Around Region." Great Falls Tribune. April 11, 2010.
The new building was designed by architects George W. Bird, Ernest B. Croft, and Johannes Van Teylingen.Robison, p. 73. (Van Teylingen was one of the most prominent architects in Montana at the time. He also designed the Masonic Temple in Great Falls, the Great Falls Civic Center, and Turner Hall on the campus of the University of Montana.) The new high school was located at 1900 2nd Avenue South, and occupied four city blocks (between 2nd and 4th Avenues South, and 18th and 20th Streets South). The construction of the building generated strong debate over whether the high school's name should be changed. Former students asked that the school's name be changed to "Charles M. Russell High School" (after famed local artist Charles M. Russell), while businessmen in the city wanted the name to be "James J. Hill High School" (after James Jerome Hill, the chief executive officer of the Great Northern Railway, friend of Paris Gibson, and an initial investor in the town). But the name was not changed.
Another argument erupted over the type of brick to be used in the building. The architects specified that the exterior be built of dark brick.Wilmot, Paula. "See How You Fared in Our Area History Quiz of the 1930s." Great Falls Tribune. May 9, 2010. However, some school board trustees wanted local bricks to be used, but these were much lighter in color. As a compromise, dark imported bricks were used for the exterior and light, locally made bricks used for the interior—even though the locally made bricks cost more than twice as much.
While the high school was being built, workers discovered a huge cache of blasting powder in a manhole adjacent to the construction site."Find Giant Powder Hidden in Manhole." Associated Press. August 6, 1929. Since the manhole itself had been dug only two months earlier and no mining or construction company in the area reported any explosives missing, the discovery was even more mysterious.
The final cost of the building when it was finished on July 21, 1930, was $1.15 million. When the building opened in the fall of 1930, enrollment was 1,760 students—just shy of the 1,800 students the building was designed to accommodate.Les Johnson o/b/o Amanda Johnson v. Great Falls Public Schools. Final Order. HRC Case No. 9504007138. Human Rights Commission of the State of Montana. September 10, 1998, p. 4. Accessed 2011-05-06. Great Falls High School included a gymnasium and a large football stadium west of the main entrance (which was on the west side of the long main north–south structure). The gym (known as Old Gym today) contained two underground lockerrooms and a hardwood basketball court surrounded by mezzanine seating that could accommodate 1,200 people."Bison Slip Past Skyview." Great Falls Tribune. January 25, 2009. The stadium was named Memorial Stadium to honor those who fought and served in World War I.Johnson, Peter. "Football Players Raise Memorial Stadium Flag." Great Falls Tribune. May 20, 2000. It featured concrete bleachers on the east side, clad in dark brick on their western face.Johnson, Peter. "Group Wants to Renovate Aging Stadium." Great Falls Tribune. February 8, 1999. A two-story brick building (which contained a meeting room for the home team during pre-game and half-time on the ground floor, and concessions and public restrooms on the second) occupied the northeast corner of the field (connected to the Old Gym by a tunnel), while an identical brick building (with no tunnel) occupied the southeast corner.Johnson, Peter. "Patching Up Memorial Stadium." Great Falls Tribune. November 8, 1999.Johnson, Peter. "'We've Brought the Eastside Bleachers into a New Era'." Great Falls Tribune. November 3, 2000. Other tunnels ran beneath the building and then 1963 T-wing, providing maintenance staff with access to the electrical and steam heating system and capable of acting as nuclear fallout shelters. Four coal-fired boilers were installed in the basement. Although the school only needed two, the idea was that two would be used one year, and two the next—extending the life of the boilers much longer.
The construction of the new Great Falls High School building proved fortuitous. The lack of a gymnasium and athletic facilities at the old Great Falls High School led to a student lawsuit against the school district. In McNair v. School District No. 1 of Cascade County (Mont.), the Montana Supreme Court held in 1930 that a gymnasium was a "necessary and essential part of a school plant".McNair v. School District No. 1 of Cascade County (Mont.), 87 Mont. 423, 288 P. 188 (1930). Had the new high school with its gymnasium and stadium not been built, the school district would have been forced to construct them.