2025 Endangered List
Each year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation creates a list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places (2025) in the country.
Preserve Historic Missoula solicited nominations for Missoula area buildings and historic sites that face pressing challenges. This list, created with the help of community members, is meant to inspire a closer look at the built landscape around us. The stories these structures tell are part of our shared culture. They help define Missoula. Although they face uncertain futures, there remains an opportunity to adapt, re-imagine, and reshape the buildings to save the places that matter.
Preserve Historic Missoula solicited nominations for Missoula area buildings and historic sites that face pressing challenges. This list, created with the help of community members, is meant to inspire a closer look at the built landscape around us. The stories these structures tell are part of our shared culture. They help define Missoula. Although they face uncertain futures, there remains an opportunity to adapt, re-imagine, and reshape the buildings to save the places that matter.
#1 The Old Post Hospital at Fort Missoula (9 Fort Missoula Rd)
The Post Hospital, constructed in 1911, is a 3 ½ story building at Fort Missoula. It is a Mission Style building with red clay roof tiles, white stucco walls, and bracketed eaves. The hospital was the main medical facility for the Fort. The building was utilized for the care of Missoula citizens during the Spanish influenza and Polio breakouts. Fire damaged the structure in 1941. A few years later, it was repaired and became the main hospital for the Alien Detention Center, treating Italian and Japanese detainees during World War II. The hospital was deactivated in 1947. The Old Post Hospital is a fundamental part of the Fort Missoula Historic District, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
The current owners filed a demolition permit. The Missoula Historic Preservation Commission and Historic Preservation Officer denied the permit in March 2025, a decision overturned by the City Council in September of 2025. The building does have structural damage such as leaking roof and damaged walls due to neglect. The building has continued to sit vacant under the current owners without any repairs. The Post Hospital has been on previous PHM Endangered lists. The developers’ intent to demolish or substantively alter the structure earns the Post Hospital the #1 spot for 2025.
The current owners filed a demolition permit. The Missoula Historic Preservation Commission and Historic Preservation Officer denied the permit in March 2025, a decision overturned by the City Council in September of 2025. The building does have structural damage such as leaking roof and damaged walls due to neglect. The building has continued to sit vacant under the current owners without any repairs. The Post Hospital has been on previous PHM Endangered lists. The developers’ intent to demolish or substantively alter the structure earns the Post Hospital the #1 spot for 2025.
#2 Missoula County Public Schools Administration Building (215 S. 6th Street)
The Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS) Administration Building is a towering brick building in the Slant Street neighborhood of Missoula. The building was a school until the 1950s when it became the administration building for the district. Administrative staff and facilities moved into a new Admin Building in November 2020 and the building has been largely vacant since. The Missoula County Commissioners have shown their support of adapting the historic building for other uses. In 2025, MCPS began a broader effort to identify how its properties would be managed in the future. The Administration Building is featured in their study efforts.
#3 Boxcars at Lubrecht Experimental Forest (Hwy 200)
The boxcars at Lubrecht Forest were property of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company (ACM) for their Bear Creek logging camp. ACM later donated land and the boxcars to the University of Montana in the 1960s. Almost immediately the boxcars became used as dorm space. The structures were used as public rentals for some time. Currently, the majority of the boxcars are now used as research related rentals through the University of Montana.
#4 Moon Randolph Barn (1515 Spurlock Rd, Missoula)
The Moon family settled the land and built the first small shack and barn on the Moon Randolph property in 1889. This homestead represents what many settlers in western Montana lived like at the turn of the 20th century. The property was in the Randolph family until 1995. Bill Randolph Jr. worked to put a conservation easement on the house in 1992 to protect the site through the Five Valleys Land Trust. In 1997 the City of Missoula purchased the property and in 2015 updated their “Moon-Randolph Strategic Plan Update: 2015-2024.”
The barn is a three section building with the center being the oldest around 1889. It originally was 23’ by 27’ with a gambrel roof. The east end was added in 1909 and the west end was added around 1912. Structural improvements and preservation efforts are needed for this building, but the City and caretakers of the site are exploring opportunities to carry this work out.
The barn is a three section building with the center being the oldest around 1889. It originally was 23’ by 27’ with a gambrel roof. The east end was added in 1909 and the west end was added around 1912. Structural improvements and preservation efforts are needed for this building, but the City and caretakers of the site are exploring opportunities to carry this work out.
#5 Elrod Hall (32 Campus Drive)
Elrod Hall was built in 1921 and opened in 1923; originally named South Hall as the first men’s residence on the University of Montana campus. It currently houses 109 male students and is attached to other dorm buildings to create a U-shaped complex. It is a Renaissance Revival style building with red-brown bricks and Spanish roof tiles. Architects, Gilbert and Carsley who worked on this build were in charge of the campus master plan between 1918 and 1927. These men were from the architectural firm of Link and Haire in Helena, MT. The dorm is on the Montana National Register of Historic Places. The University of Montana plans to demolish Elrod Hall and replace it with a new residence hall.
#6 Trolley Barn/USFS Shop (S Catlin St, Missoula)
This site was originally used by Missoula Street Railway as storage and a maintenance area for Missoula’s electric street system’s trolley cars. In 1935, the Forest Service began to use the concrete building. Over the years, many additions have been added to the building and around the site. Due to these additions, the Trolley (Car) Barn is unable to be added to the National Register of Historic Places. The building still holds importance to the history of both Missoula and the National Forest Service and needs to undergo maintenance to preserve the concrete building.
#7 Howard Apartments West Main St (147 West Main St)
The Howard Apartments were built in 1890. At the time it was known as the Missoula Hotel. Important people and businesses in Missoula’s history, including A.G. England and Florence Hotel have connections to this building. Now the building holds apartments and The Rhino, a popular local bar. The tudor style building requires some upgrades to the roof and foundation. The Howard Apartments have been on the endangered list previously, but there is renewed hope for the buildings future. In February 2026, the building sold to new owners who are planning a full renovation and restoration of the Howard Apartments.
#8 Feruqi’s (318 N Higgins Ave, Missoula)
318 North Higgins Ave in Downtown Missoula has held many businesses over the last 100 plus years. The two story brick building was the location of The Golden Pheasant 1941-1998, and Feruqi’s 1998 to present day. The Golden Pheasant was a Missoulian favorite as many locals considered it the best Chinese food in the area. Ruby Wong and her family ran it for its lifespan. When Feruqi’s replaced it in 1998, the bar quickly became well-loved. The brick building is from the turn of the 20th century representing the early days in downtown Missoula. Over the years, wear and tear has come to the building. Supporting the preservation and upkeep of historic buildings such as 318 North Higgins will help preserve the history and memories of Missoulians.
#9 Lolo Schoolhouse (11395 Hwy. 93 S, Lolo)
Lolo Schoolhouse was built in the early 1900s. The one story, wood framed building sits on a 33.75 acre property off of route 93. It is stated to be one of the oldest buildings still standing in Lolo, Montana. Recently the land was bought by the developer MCG Vines. In March of 2026, the developers announced the original schoolhouse would be moved to the nearby Holt Heritage Center. The rest of the land will be turned into a neighborhood called the Belltower Subdivision. 56 residential lots, one commercial lot, and parkland will all be a part of the planned development.
#10 T-26, Fort Missoula (Fort Missoula Road, T-26 Building, Missoula)
A u-shaped concrete building built between 1906 to 1912 to match the style of Officer’s Row. The military used T-26 for company barracks and as a recruiting center. During WWII, the Immigration and Naturalization Service used the buildings to house Italian detainees before separate quarters were built. Post-war, Army staff used the building. The Lolo National Forest Service currently uses the building today.
#11 Haines Building (421 Daly Ave)
The Haines Building is a 3-story Art Deco style brick building in the University District. This 1933 apartment building features stained glass, high ceilings, and crown molding. The building is a part of the University Area Historic District under the National Register of Historic Places. Since the early days, both local families and college students have called this building home. Over the years it has become worn down due to age and environmental elements. Restoration and maintenance efforts could help preserve this important community building.
The community nominator wrote a moving testament to the building: “I am in a romance with the endangered and neglected Haines building…. I’ve now had tenures in two different apartments in this historic building. I’ve lived in the canopy and I’ve lived at garden level. I’ve faced North and I’ve faced south. From any direction, it is quiet enough to hear the train whistle along the Northside tracks and the chickadees sing from the trees, flickers bang on the rooflines. I’ve watched snowfall from the picture windows, and heard the high school marching band rehearse songs for Homecoming in the neighborhood streets. It is a building built in and around community, not box stores or large parking lots. It is embedded into the neighborhood the way communal living ought to be: next to institutions of learning, spirituality, green spaces, and cafes….As a building which has sheltered and nurtured so many lives and stories, it deserves reciprocal care and I believe more people would resonate with the building if it were shown greater respect, upkeep, and attention. I urgently nominate this architecture, for it to be loved as I love it.”
The community nominator wrote a moving testament to the building: “I am in a romance with the endangered and neglected Haines building…. I’ve now had tenures in two different apartments in this historic building. I’ve lived in the canopy and I’ve lived at garden level. I’ve faced North and I’ve faced south. From any direction, it is quiet enough to hear the train whistle along the Northside tracks and the chickadees sing from the trees, flickers bang on the rooflines. I’ve watched snowfall from the picture windows, and heard the high school marching band rehearse songs for Homecoming in the neighborhood streets. It is a building built in and around community, not box stores or large parking lots. It is embedded into the neighborhood the way communal living ought to be: next to institutions of learning, spirituality, green spaces, and cafes….As a building which has sheltered and nurtured so many lives and stories, it deserves reciprocal care and I believe more people would resonate with the building if it were shown greater respect, upkeep, and attention. I urgently nominate this architecture, for it to be loved as I love it.”