C. M. Russell Museum Complex - Russell House and Studio

Russell House and Studio

In 1896, Charlie Russell and his new wife, Nancy, were living in a shack in back of a house in Cascade, Montana. In 1897, the couple moved into a rented four-room home on Seventh Avenue North in Great Falls. In December 1899, Russell's father Charles Silas Russell gave the couple $500. The estate of Mary Mead Russell, Russell's mother who died in 1895, was finally probated shortly thereafter, and in the spring of 1900 the Russells began building a new home on the corner of 13th Street and 4th Avenue North. A friend and neighbor, George Calvert, was the likely architect and constructed the house for them. The two-story wood frame building had clapboard siding, gable roof, and wooden shake roofing shingles. It had little exterior ornamentation. The house faced south, with gable fronted dormers on the east and west and another project slightly from the southwest corner of the house. The front door led to a small front hall, and a parlor ran across the south face of the home. Also on the first floor were dining room, bathroom, kitchen, and a small maid's room off the kitchen. Some of the furniture on first floor (such as two seats, a china closet, a bookcase) were built into the home. A steep stairway led to three small bedrooms (under the gables) and a small bathroom on the second floor. The interior was paneled in dark wood. A small exterior porch ran around the southeast corner of the home. The architectural style was in the Arts and Crafts genre. The Russells occupied the home in the summer of 1900.

That same year, Charlie Russell expressed interest in constructing a log cabin studio to work in. There was a lack of good logs in Great Falls at the time, but telephone service had arrived in 1890. Russell purchased a large number of Western red cedar telephone poles, and constructed the one-room cabin from these materials. He also built a rock fireplace and chimney on the east side of the structure. The log cabin was 24 feet (7.3 m) north-south by 30 feet (9.1 m) east-west, and had a porch extending across the entire south side, on top of which Russell threw numerous elk antlers. A skylight was built into the gabled roof, and another door cut through the northeast corner of the structure. A small storage shed was attached to the cabin near this door. At some point between 1903 and 1926, Charlie Russell had the roof raised by two logs in order to accommodate a large canvas. The interior was furnished with rough, hand-made stools and benches; carpeted with buffalo and bear skins; and contained hundreds of pieces of Indian and cowboy gear. Russell also built two birdhouses against the exterior of the eastern wall.

The Trigg family home was located to the west of the log cabin studio, and a horse stable (probably shared by the Russells and the Triggs) existed between the two structures. The Trigg house and the stable were torn down in 1953 to build the C.M. Russell Museum. The Russells also apparently constructed a gray stone wall 2 to 3 feet (0.61 to 0.91 m) high in front of their two properties and a concrete set of steps up to the house. In the center of the wall was a concrete diamond-shaped emblem that contained Russell's trademark (a cattle skull and his initials). These still existed as of 1976, but have since been removed.

The National Park Service noted in 1976 that the house was little changed from when it was constructed and remained in good physical shape. Most of the lighting fixtures, interior hardware (doorknobs, faucets, hinges, etc.), and doors were original as of 1976. However, in 1973, the museum moved the house 50 feet (15 m) east and 50 feet (15 m) north of its original location. The museum owned a wood frame house, built around 1930, which it tore down to make room for the Russell home's move. The home's original back porch was removed, the house placed on shallow concrete footings, a pillar emplaced to support the exterior fireplace and chimney, and an original shed in the back yard torn down.

The log cabin studio, too, had seen some change. Nancy Russell signed an agreement with the city in 1928 turning over management of the log cabin studio and its grounds to Great Falls. Between 1928 and 1930, the city (with Nancy Russell's apparent permission) built a major L-shaped addition to the west and north of the studio to act as a gallery for Russell's artwork. In 1930, the studio was opened by her to the public as a memorial to Charlie Russell. Aside from these changes, the interior of the log cabin was (as of 1976) little changed from when Russell himself used it.

Nancy Russell's will bequeathed both structures (but not their contents) to the city of Great Falls, and the city parks commission operated them until 1991 (when they were turned over to the museum). Some time prior to 1976, the city gave the Montana Federation of Garden Clubs permission to furnish the interior of the house with period furniture and provide docents to help the public interpret the home.

Interestingly, in early 1966—as National Historic Landmark status was about to be awarded to the Russell house—the city of Great Falls actually proposed tearing down the structure in order to build a parking lot for the museum. The city's mayor, other city officials, and several private parties all advocated tearing the structure down. The Montana Historical Society, U.S. Senator Mike Mansfield, and the Montana Federation of Garden Clubs strongly opposed this action. City officials provided a range of rationales for demolishing the Russell house: Close friends of the Russells had approved of the action, all the original furnishings were gone, the Russells did not actually occupy the house for any length of time, the house was a fire hazard, Charlie Russell "hated" the house, and that the house "detracted" from the altered studio and the non-historic museum. At one point, the city even argued that the 1928 agreement with Nancy Russell required the city to maintain a park-like appearance around the cabin—an objective which could be achieved only by demolishing the house (now that the museum had taken up all the grassy space on the lots). Although National Park Service officials repeatedly emphasized their view that the house should be retained, extensive miscommunication led city officials at various times over the next few years to believe that the federal government approved of the demolition or approved of moving the house. Demolition of the house was stayed only by the threat of legal action from the Montana Federation of Garden Clubs, which noted that the 1928 agreement required the city to maintain both structures built by the Russells. Much of the city's demand for demolition came because the plan for a park around the museum called for the home's removal. Despite a threat by the National Park Service to revoke the site's National Historic Landmark status if the house was moved, the Garden Clubs brokered a deal with the city in which the house was moved to its current location.

After the house's move in 1973, the Garden Clubs began refurbishment of the Russell house. The city repainted the exterior of the structure, and replaced windows broken during the home's move. The Garden Clubs repainted and repapered the first floor interior, and had refurnished the house. By July 1976, the Garden Clubs was hard at work on refurbishing the second floor as well.

According to the National Park Service, "A look at earlier photographs indicates how considerably the historic arrangement and character of the site has been altered and lost." The museum crowded the studio, while the home's move had severed the relationship the house once had to the studio (an element important to Charlie Russell). The city and museum also removed the original concrete and stone pathways which indicated where the house originally stood, and the Park Service was highly critical of additional changes being implemented: "The whole complex is being redesigned and landscaped with new walkways and new vegetation, which will probably further disguise the changes which have been made."

When the site was given National Historic Place status in 1976, the National Park Service was very specific about what the site did and did not contain. The National Historic Landmark boundary encompassed only the three central lots on the north side of 4th Avenue North, and no more. This included the two original lots the Russells owned, as well as the lot to the east to which the house was moved in 1973. The C.M. Russell Museum, gardens, park, and other structures, although present on a portion of these lots, were not historic and not included within the National Historic Landmark and Site.

The Russell home is open from May to September, and is furnished with period furniture (some of which was owned by the Russells).

The log cabin studio is currently furnished with items from the first two decades of the 1900s, some of which belonged to Russell.