Montana committed itself to educating children with disabilities in 1887 when Territorial Governor Preston Leslie requested funds for a Montana Deaf and Dumb Asylum, a title that reflected accepted nineteenth-century terminology and attitudes. After statehood in 1889, Congress granted Montana 50,000 acres of land to raise money for the school, and in 1893 the legislature provided operating expenses and selected Boulder as its site. Students first attended classes in a private home while the first campus building was begun in 1896 and completed in 1898. The school provided innovative college-preparatory instruction and training for deaf and blind youth, and in 1903 the state legislature renamed it the Montana School for the Deaf and Dumb, recognizing it as a public school for children with special needs rather than an asylum. By 1915, added buildings expanded the campus to 200 students between ages 5 and 20, and its mission had grown to include developmentally disabled youth. Until the 1930s, this building served as the center of activities, student and staff housing, and dining rooms. Blind students learned various manual industries, deaf students studied lip-reading along with the standard public school curriculum, and the school also maintained an extensive music program. State architect John C. Paulsen designed the building in local brick and granite with Montana copper trim, and its Italianate and Renaissance revival styling and long institutional service made it a Boulder landmark and a state milestone.