Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art was constructed in 1895 to house the city's first high school, Great Falls High School (later known as Great Falls Central High School). The high school moved to new quarters in 1931, at which time the building was renamed Paris Gibson Junior High School. The junior high school vacated the premises in 1975 for a new building. In 1977, Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art was formed, and it took ownership of the building. It is one of six museums in the city. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 1976.
The museum focuses primarily on contemporary art by artists from the region. Much of its collection consists of folk art, abstract art, postmodern art, and functional artwork such as jewelry. In addition to two floors of galleries, the museum also hosts an outdoor sculpture garden.
The structure should not be confused with the Roman Catholic parochial school also named Great Falls Central High School. This Catholic school opened in 1950 at 2400 Central Avenue.[2] It closed in 1973, and the public school system purchased the building in 1975. The building housed Paris Gibson Junior High School (later Paris Gibson Middle School) from September 1976 to May 2005.[4] Paris Gibson Education Center, an alternative high school, opened in the building in 2007. This building also houses Paris Gibson Middle School Academy, a program for at-risk students.
About the high school building
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. The walls, which were 5 feet thick at the bottom of the building but only 4 feet thick at the roof, were sunk 16 feet 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.[10] The interior woodwork was solid oak, all rooms had 3-foot high wainscoting, the solid doors were 2.5 inches 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.
A brick annex, designed by architect 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. (Nonetheless, in July 2010, museum executive director Kathy Lear admitted that she once heard ghostly radio music coming from the basement late one afternoon.)
The clock tower was removed in 1916 after its massive weight began to compromise the building.
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Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
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