{"id":108,"ordinal":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:40:34","content_modified":"2026-05-16 14:09:15","featured":1,"title":"Hospitals","creator":"Julian Boughton","description":"<p>Healthcare in Montana first arose with Indigenous use of native plants, especially the Four Sacred Medicines — tobacco, cedar, sage, and sweetgrass — which treated various ailments, whether spiritual, physical, or emotional. Change came with the arrival of Catholic missionary Father Antonio Ravalli to St. Mary’s of the Rockies in 1845, where he brought Western medicine to the Salish. It was the gold rush era of the 1860s and 1870s, and the influx of Euro-Americans, however, that prompted the creation of hospitals.\r\nThe first medical facilities were modest. Most medical care took place at home. Doctors and midwives made house calls and family members nursed ill relatives. Some midwives founded birthing hospitals in small residences, and physicians ran private practices (including hospitals) from domestic and commercial buildings. However, religious women, especially Catholic nuns and Protestant deaconesses, had the greatest impact on healthcare, managing and staffing community hospitals as well as hospitals created to serve miners or railroad workers. As populations continued to swell, some of these larger, religiously-affiliated hospitals implemented nursing schools, such as St. Joseph’s Hospital in Lewistown.\r\nRegardless of specialization, all Montana hospitals were up to date for their time. They contained operating rooms, sanitization stations, x-ray machines, and patient rooms. Some also had space for physician’s offices and apartments for medical staff. As early-twentieth-century facilities grew in importance and institutions hired architects to draw plans for multilevel facilities, they dispensed with homelike materials and designs. Instead, they chose the permanence of brick and sandstone cladding and embraced styles ranging from the charming Mission Revival to the stately Classical Revival. Some, like the Holy Rosary Hospital in Miles City, incorporated Craftsman elements, once again providing a visual connection to domestic architecture (and to Montana’s homey first hospitals).\r\nAs towns continued to grow in the mid-to-late twentieth century and medical technology changed, even these “modern” hospitals were replaced by larger, state-of-the-art facilities. Not all survived, but several of Montana’s historic hospitals were converted for other uses. Still standing today, they bear witness to hospitals’ integral role in community development.</p>","postscript_text":"","tour_img":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/b2669862aeb4fe58f2458fdf9376367e.jpg","items":[{"id":2746,"title":"Original Madison County Courthouse","latitude":45.2922962493246217263731523416936397552490234375,"longitude":-111.947160136824123810583841986954212188720703125,"thumbnail":"https://historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/b2669862aeb4fe58f2458fdf9376367e.jpg","fullsize":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/b2669862aeb4fe58f2458fdf9376367e.jpg","subtitle":"Virginia City Historic District","address":"308 West Idaho Street, Virginia City, Montana","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":2731,"title":"Sisters of Charity 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MT","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":3407,"title":"Hospital (Building #141)","latitude":46.617833172302965749622671864926815032958984375,"longitude":-112.1017314629936407754939864389598369598388671875,"thumbnail":"https://historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/f307778895d5943fb820043f9b544362.jpg","fullsize":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/f307778895d5943fb820043f9b544362.jpg","subtitle":"Fort Harrison Veterans Hospital Historic District","address":"3687 Veterans Drive","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":1687,"title":"128 South Yellowstone Street","latitude":45.6586615850920196635343017987906932830810546875,"longitude":-110.5628098104988339400733821094036102294921875,"thumbnail":"https://historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/9e0b307ac3df8a0fa2a867292c65a082.jpg","fullsize":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/9e0b307ac3df8a0fa2a867292c65a082.jpg","subtitle":"Livingston Westside Residential Historic District","address":"128 South Yellowstone Street, Livingston, Montana","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":2106,"title":"Silver Bow County Poor Farm Hospital","latitude":45.984441599999996697079041041433811187744140625,"longitude":-112.4865310999999792329617775976657867431640625,"thumbnail":"https://historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/158731e6a0a17e8fafd8e40a5343cc96.jpg","fullsize":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/158731e6a0a17e8fafd8e40a5343cc96.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"3040 Continental Drive, Butte, Montana","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":2186,"title":"Frank Church Building","latitude":45.1876687999999973044396028853952884674072265625,"longitude":-109.246765999999979612766765058040618896484375,"thumbnail":"https://historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/86801b8c4f161526a40963897c37b3f3.jpg","fullsize":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/86801b8c4f161526a40963897c37b3f3.jpg","subtitle":"Red Lodge Commercial Historic District","address":"20 Broadway Avenue North, Red Lodge, Montana","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":387,"title":"St. Joseph's Hospital","latitude":47.06896153588299824832574813626706600189208984375,"longitude":-109.419581772300034572253935039043426513671875,"thumbnail":"https://historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/8a483075e4c292e33a0e57e022106164.jpg","fullsize":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/8a483075e4c292e33a0e57e022106164.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"US-87, Lewistown, Montana","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":2801,"title":"Nurses' Home","latitude":47.06886302927596688050471129827201366424560546875,"longitude":-109.4193649291992329608547152020037174224853515625,"thumbnail":"https://historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/7f1a4804db593b86ed0a593c0e51ed0e.jpg","fullsize":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/7f1a4804db593b86ed0a593c0e51ed0e.jpg","subtitle":"St. Joseph's Hospital Historic District","address":"405 St. Joseph Drive, Lewistown, Montana","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":127,"title":"Carbon County Hospital and Sanitarium","latitude":45.189222000000000889485818333923816680908203125,"longitude":-109.24704500000001416992745362222194671630859375,"thumbnail":"https://historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/5e621133b67f2e48825507094ce62903.jpg","fullsize":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/5e621133b67f2e48825507094ce62903.jpg","subtitle":"Red Lodge Commercial Historic District","address":"206 Broadway Avenue North, Red Lodge, Montana","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":1996,"title":"St. James Hospital Nurses Dormitory","latitude":46.01064699999999874080458539538085460662841796875,"longitude":-112.5411235999999917112290859222412109375,"thumbnail":"https://historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/c3ad9e813c7a12bc98caf4d7f19addbb.jpg","fullsize":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/c3ad9e813c7a12bc98caf4d7f19addbb.jpg","subtitle":"Butte National Historic Landmark District","address":"300 West Mercury Street, Butte, Montana","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":786,"title":"St. Aloysius Select School for Boys","latitude":46.5844685633656325762785854749381542205810546875,"longitude":-112.0377935775717332944623194634914398193359375,"thumbnail":"https://historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/592d335377d367a529ea73343350f2f5.jpg","fullsize":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/592d335377d367a529ea73343350f2f5.jpg","subtitle":"Helena South-Central Historic District","address":"30 South Ewing Street, Helena, Montana","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":787,"title":"St. John's Hospital Laundry","latitude":46.584778439176403708188445307314395904541015625,"longitude":-112.0383703708648681640625,"thumbnail":null,"fullsize":null,"subtitle":"Helena South-Central Historic District","address":"30 South Ewing Street, Helena, Montana","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":1844,"title":"St. Luke's 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