Old Missoula

New County High School Plant Occupied in 1957

A modern stream-lined school broke the skyline in 1956 which serves as the education laboratory for some 2,000 Missoula County High School students.

Throughout the years, increased enrollments surged ahead of community efforts to provide adequate facilities for high school students. But in 1951 a survey team from Stanford University evaluated the educational needs of the community and recommended a three million dollar bond issue for the construction of a new school building to overcome the deficiencies of the Higgins avenue building.

The $2,750,000 Missoula County High School opened officially in January of 1957 on a 52-acre tract at Bancroft street and South avenue to accommodate sophomores, juniors and seniors. Freshmen remained at the Higgins avenue building.

County High School

Voters brought Missoula County Free High School into existence in April 1906. The city had found it difficult to finance both city elementary and countywide secondary education, so trustees sought a broader tax.

A new independent board of six members with the county superintendent of schools as ex-officio member rented the city high school building – the old Roosevelt of today. Meanwhile, a new three-story brick and sandstone building on Higgins avenue between Eddy and Connell avenues was constructed and occupied in 1908.

Within six years the faculty increased from seven to 21 members, and the enrollment from 200 to 300. Finally in 1910 citizen-board discussions were conducted to consider building, with emphasis on curriculum expansion.

Activities Planned

Activities were expanding, as was enrollment. In addition to athletics were the Bitter Root – a literary magazine – and music, debate, oratory and declamation, the Girls Club and Boys Senate, Manual training and boys athletics were in the Hollenbeck Building. The high school’s attic was remodeled in 1913 to provide fourth floor rooms with skylights and dormer windows. Students reached the attic by way of an iron fire escape. It was in this attic that the school’s first classes in home economics and art were conducted. A commercial department was added when the Hollenbeck Building was remodeled.

The Student Association, organized in 1910, was the school’s largest student organization by 1913.

Principals of the high school have been M. Victor Staley 1906-08, J. Franklin Thomas 1908-10, Francis A. Stejer 1910-12, Gilbert A. Ketcham 33 years from 1912 to 1945 and D. H. Beary from 1945 to 1960.

Enrollment Drops

At the beginning of the 1916-17 school year enrollment reached 500. That year voters approved a bond issue for $75,000 for an addition. But World War I brought enrollment down as did the flu epidemic which closed the school for three months in the fall of 1918.

Bond issues approved in 1919 and 1920 were used to construct a manual arts-gymnasium building across Eddy avenue and a north wing for the main building which housed classrooms, a new auditorium, library and science department.

Following World War I, home economics, some manual and fine arts classes and girls’ physical education classes were dropped. However, part-time music was introduced in 1925 and agriculture classes started in 1927.

New South Wing

A $200,000 bond issue approved in 1930 produced the new south wing of the high school which was swept by fire Sept 15, 1931, after it had been occupied only a day or two.

Missoula was discouraged but rallied to rebuild. The new school, constructed within the original walls with a flat roof instead of sloping, opened Sept 17, 1932.

Numbers continued to increase during the depression and in 1938 the enrollment reached 1,500. Property adjacent to the school grounds on Gerald avenue was acquired in 1940 for an east wing, and the subsequent bond issue was approved.

East Wing in 1942

The new addition was completed in September 1942 despite shortages of materials and labor due to World War II. The addition allowed space and equipment for music, art, home economics, a library, physical education and modern languages. Aeronautics was added to the science curriculum.

World War II brought the first significant enrollment drop in the school’s history. The 1942 enrollment dropped below 1,100. Students and faculty members were busied with bond drives, scrap drives, Red Cross work, knitting clubs, community cannery operations and other war activities. Gas rationing forbade athletic trips.

In Postwar years mathematics courses were reorganized; music, art and commercial offerings for students doubled. Four teachers offered instruction to more than 400 girls and boys in home economics. Revisions were made in government and history courses. Adjustments were made to meet community needs for increased services, including transportation, part-time employment, the school lunch program, guidance and counseling, health improvement, vocational education, recreation, driver training and adult education.

Many extra-curricular activities have been brought into the curriculum such as the entire music program, school publications and a work program. The school has provided sponsorships for more than 40 student organizations.

In the fall of 1959 freshman enrollment at the Higgins avenue school approached the 600 mark. This figure when added to the enrollment of the other three classes brings the total to about 2,600.