The Flathead County Courthouse building, at 800 S. Main St. in Kalispell is indeed unmissable in more ways than one. A bit of texting-and-driving gone wrong and one could drive right into it (literally). And as one of the tallest, most formidable buildings in the area, it stands unavoidably to the south, visible from anywhere along Main Street in Kalispell.
It’s a unique building with a unique history borne of necessity. The Flathead Valley was initially part of Missoula County. As more settlers came to the valley in the 1880s and 1890s, trekking to the county seat in Missoula became unbearable. The trip could take a week depending upon the weather, trail conditions, and other factors of traversing a route that was still little more than a cow path at some places.
By 1892, the Great Northern Railway helped establish Kalispell as a town, and pushed the need for a closer county seat. After successful legislation, Flathead County was established in 1893. And Kalispell was chosen as the county seat in 1894.
By 1895, Flathead County government had been established. However, there was no official place of county business aside from make-shift courts and offices scattered about Kalispell. After years of make-do county business, local leaders decided something had to be done.
On June 17, 1902, a site for a new, permanent county courthouse and jail was selected. The Kalispell Townsite Company, directed by Charles E. Conrad, sold about 2.75 acres of land to the county for the courthouse. The land was formerly part of the original 160-acre, homestead patent of John Sell.
A county with grand promise needed a grand building. And there was perhaps no finer government building than the Montana State Capitol. So Flathead County officials chose the architectural firm of Charles E. Bell and John H. Kent (Bell & Kent) of Helena – the same architects who designed the Montana State Capitol. Consequently, the Capitol building and the Flathead County Courthouse building share many conceptual similarities.
Today, the courthouse building may seem like a dreadful bastion of bureaucracy. However, even the most tedious county administration hardly compares to the dread Fred LeBeau faced at the courthouse on April 2, 1909 – when he was executed by hanging at the gallows outside the courthouse, as punishment for his crime of murder.
Also, the building was designed with a clock tower – although a clock has yet to be installed.
These are just a couple of the many “interesting” facts to be found in courthouse history, while in hindsight, the very location of the courthouse – smack in the middle of a busy roadway – remains suspect.
The circular roundabout was established in the 1970s – several decades after the courthouse was built in the early 1900s, when Main Street and Kalispell itself did not extend much further to the south. Besides, back then it was the very intention to have the courthouse anchor the opposite end of the “commercial district,” about a half-mile to the south of the railroad depot.
Indeed, the Flathead County Courthouse is a unique building, at a unique location, with a unique history – all deserving of much greater appreciation (beyond any bureaucracy and paperwork that may get in the way).