Founded in 1909, the town of Valier quickly erected a wood-frame schoolhouse for the children of the new community, but less than two years later the school board decided to replace it with a more substantial building. In 1911, using funds from the sale of bonds, the board commissioned prominent Great Falls architect George Shanley to design the new school. Sandstone was chosen to keep the work local and avoid importing materials, and Shanley selected a quarry site on Dupuyer Creek. William Young of Great Falls supervised the quarry, cutting and transporting the stone by horse-drawn wagon to the building site three miles away. Seven months later, the new school opened with 121 students in attendance. Its stone architecture reflected the high aspirations of Valier’s citizens for their community’s prosperity, with notable features including a stuccoed bell tower with applied metal and wood detailing and a tall, half-circle window lighting the inner stairway. Originally, four classrooms opened onto central corridors and served all grades. After a high school was completed in 1918, Valier Public School became a grammar school and served Valier’s children until 1952.