Virginia City in Madison County, Montana — The American West (Mountains)
Original Madison County Courthouse
This Property Contributes to the Virginia City Historic District
Photographed by Barry Swackhamer, August 5, 2022
1. Original Madison County Courthouse Marker
Inscription.
Original Madison County Courthouse. This Property Contributes to the Virginia City Historic District. Madison County was one of the original nine counties created by the first territorial legislature in 1865. This building, constructed in 1866, served as the county courthouse during Virginia Citys stint as territorial capital (1865-1875). When the present courthouse on Wallace Street replaced it in 1876, three Catholic Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas, came to Virginia City at the request of Father Francis Kelleher. The sisters opened St. Marys Hospital for miners in the old courthouse. The hospital briefly prospered and the three sisters worked tirelessly caring for patients, cooking, sterilizing instruments, and doing endless hospital laundry. Placer gold was soon exhausted and St. Marys closed for lack of patients in 1879. In 1949, Charles Bovey remodeled the interior as a hotel, but the exterior, with its clapboard siding and tall false front, is little changed from the 1870s.
Madison County was one of the original nine counties created by the first territorial legislature in 1865. This building, constructed in 1866, served as the county courthouse during Virginia Citys stint as territorial capital (1865-1875). When the present courthouse on Wallace Street replaced it in 1876, three Catholic Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas, came to Virginia City at the request of Father Francis Kelleher. The sisters opened St. Marys Hospital for miners in the old courthouse. The hospital briefly prospered and the three sisters worked tirelessly caring for patients, cooking, sterilizing instruments, and doing endless hospital laundry. Placer gold was soon exhausted and St. Marys closed for lack of patients in 1879. In 1949, Charles Bovey remodeled the interior as a hotel, but the exterior, with its clapboard siding and tall false front, is little changed from the 1870s.
Location. 45° 17.538′ N, 111° 56.818′ W. Marker is in Virginia City
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, Montana, in Madison County. It is on West Idaho Street near Jackson Street, on the left when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 308 West Idaho Street, Virginia City MT 59755, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Southwest Montana, in Gold West Country, in Mining Country and in Greater Bozeman. It is also in the American Mountain West and in the Lewis & Clark Corridor. Globally, it is in North America, the Rocky Mountains, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once Ruperts Land and also the Louisiana Purchase.
Credits. This page was last revised on October 28, 2022. It was originally submitted on October 28, 2022, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California. This page has been viewed 187 times since then and 10 times this year. Photos:1, 2. submitted on October 28, 2022, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California.
