Congregationalist Church - Missoula, MT - Continental Reformed and Congregational Church Sites on Waymarking.com

Though the The Journey Christian Fellowship's website indicates that this Gothic Revival church was built in 1906, the National Register indicates that it was initially built in 1892 and enlarged ca. 1898. The design was that of A.J. Gibson, a self taught architect responsible for around 150 structures, many notable ones, in Missoula and Ravalli counties.

The church was built with a much taller bell tower with crenelated parapet. Today it has a hipped roofed steeple in place of the parapet, which was removed sometime after 1991, the year of publication of the National Register report. It retains its decorative truss work and stained glass and appears, other than the tower, much the same as it did in 1900.

Over the main entrance there is a transom with a lancet window, within which is leaded and stained glass with the following words formed in the glass:

FIRST 7th DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

This would indicate that sometime in its past the church was occupied by the 7th Day Adventists.

The church is now a primary contributing building to the Missoula Southside Historic District.

The Church

Originally designed in the Queen Anne style by one of Montana’s best known architects A.J. Gibson in 1906 for Congregationalists, it is a grander version of a Lutheran church built around 1902 also on the southside of Missoula. It is a frame structure with a tall corner bell tower that is actually much lower than the original. It uses Gothic Revival elements such as stained-glass windows in lancet-shaped frames and projecting buttresses.

The building is on the National Register as part of the Missoula Southside Historic District. This information and more can be found in “The Original Man: The Life and Work of Montana Architect A.J. Gibson” by Hipólito Rafael Chacón.

A.J. Gibson’s work covered almost two decades during the turn of the century and close to 150 buildings from modest homes to notable civic structures such as the University of Montana’s first five buildings, courthouses for Missoula and Ravalli counties and the Marcus Daly Mansion. He was self-taught, having had no professional training in the field. His work helped tranform the rugged western Montana and northern Idaho towns into more “civilized” places.
From The Journey