Filed Under Great Falls

Terrill Apartments

Great Falls Northside Residential Historic District

Apartment buildings were good investments in rapidly expanding communities like Great Falls, which grew from 17,000 to 26,000 between 1910 and 1920. Owners reported waiting lists for units, which ranged from rooms in old-fashioned “apartment hotels” to elegant flats in modern buildings constructed specifically as apartments. By 1923, Great Falls boasted fifty-two apartment buildings. That year, Genevieve and Clarence Terrill hired the prominent contracting firm Pappin and Sons to construct this three-story, twelve-unit building, worth $30,000 by 1930. Genevieve managed the apartments; Clarence worked as a buyer for the Standard Furniture Company. A pedimented entrance, with the name “Terrill” embossed on the gable, and a frieze distinguished by diamond-patterned brickwork ornament the otherwise simple but solid western commercial style building. Rent in 1930 ranged from $45 to $62 per month, and the building attracted middle-class tenants: engineers, salesmen, small business owners, and stenographers. The Terrills also made their home here, Clarence until his death in a tragic car accident in 1931, and Genevieve into the 1940s.

Images

Terrill Apartments
Terrill Apartments Terrill Apartments (PAc 91-51 Great Falls R15 F13). Front view of the building, facing southeast on 3rd Avenue North with a view of the front entry of the building. B&W. Source: Montana State Historic Preservation Office from the Photograph Archives at the Montana Historical Society Creator: Photographer unidentified Date: 1983
Terrill Apartments
Terrill Apartments Terrill Apartments (PAc 91-51 Great Falls R15 F14). Front to side view of the building, facing southwest on the corner of 3rd Avenue North and 4th Street North. B&W. Source: Montana State Historic Preservation Office from the Photograph Archives at the Montana Historical Society Creator: Photographer unidentified Date: 1983

Location

312 3rd Avenue South, Great Falls, Montana | Private

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “Terrill Apartments,” Historic Montana, accessed March 28, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/203.