Filed Under Anaconda

St. Mark's Episcopal Church

Anaconda grew quickly after Copper King Marcus Daly established it as his smelter town in 1883, but the community’s Episcopalians needed to wait seven years before they could lay the cornerstone for St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on October 21, 1890. Before then, they had depended on priests from Deer Lodge and Butte, or on visits of Bishop Richmond Leigh Brewer from Helena. Services were held in the Methodist Episcopal Church South building and later above Foskett’s saloon. At the latter site, water for a baptism by the Rev. A. B. Howard of Deer Lodge once was supplied from downstairs, and in a beer mug. Even after having their own building, the congregation was dependent on the smelter’s fortunes, and St. Mark’s closed for some months in 1892 when the smelter was shut down. The buff sandstone for this Romanesque Revival church was quarried near Garrison. The original floor plan was that of a Latin cross except for the square entrance bell tower; and a brick one-story addition has squared off the space between transept and apse.

Images

St. Mark's Episcopal Church
St. Mark's Episcopal Church View of facade Source: ExploreBig.org Creator: Joe Furshong Date: April 2019
St. Mark's Episcopal Church
St. Mark's Episcopal Church Oblique view of facade Source: ExploreBig.org Creator: Joe Furshong Date: April 2019
St. Mark's Episcopal
St. Mark's Episcopal View of tower Source: ExploreBig.org Creator: Joe Furshong Date: April 2019
St. Mark's Episcopal Church
St. Mark's Episcopal Church Detail view of entry doors and masonry Source: ExploreBig.org Creator: Joe Furshong Date: April 2019

Location

601 Main Street, Anaconda, Montana | Public

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “St. Mark's Episcopal Church,” Historic Montana, accessed March 28, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/336.