Bishop Daniel Tuttle conducted Missoula’s first protestant service in 1870. The bishop noted in his journal that in the rough-and-tumble community, formerly called Hellgate, both the devil and the Holy Spirit were at work. When Reverend George Stewart established the parish in 1877, Bishop Tuttle gave a $500 gift from a New York donor to build a chapel. The donor requested Church of the Holy Spirit as its name. It was more than appropriate. A brick church located at Broadway and Adams replaced the tiny chapel in 1884, and a Fort Missoula officer procured a stained glass window to embellish it. By 1915, the congregation had outgrown the small church. Under Reverend H. S. Gatley, Whitehouse and Price of Spokane designed this impressive Gothic style church and parish hall. H. H. Kirkemo designed the rectory, completed in 1933. Renowned stained glass artist Charles Connick of Boston designed the altar window in 1947, memorializing the ten parishioners who died during WWII. The 1884 window, reinstalled in the nave, recalls the long service of this historic neighborhood landmark.
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