Swan River Community Hall

Swan River Community Hall. . In 1920, the local Rod and Gun Club purchased this acre of land as the site for a community building. Constructed twelve years later, the Swan River Community Hall has served as a locus for valley residents, who gathered here for school functions, card parties, plays, dances, weddings, and funerals. The Grange and Farmers Union met at the facility for years, and roller-skating was an important social activity during the 1950s and 1960s. As one resident recalled, “If we didn’t go to the Hall every week, something was wrong.” Local builder Joe Johnson designed the building, which is made of timber from surrounding state lands and salvaged from abandoned mills. Most of the other building materials were donated, often in lieu of membership fees. Plays and dances also financed the project. The first fundraising play was performed at the school across the road in 1931, and the first dance was an open-air affair held on the Hall’s new birch floor the following summer. The thirty-six-by-sixty-foot structure was completed in 1933. By 1945, an entry hall and two small rooms had been added to the front of the building. The exposed rafter tails, milled trim, lap siding, and shingled gable ends of the addition match those of the original Craftsman design. After a fire burned the rear of the Hall in 1976, the Board considered abandoning it, but an outpouring of support led them to restore the structure. The Hall continues to serve as an important gathering place for this rural Montana community.