St. Mark's Episcopal Church

Big Timber’s settlement followed the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the Yellowstone Valley in 1882, which spurred settlement along the line. In 1884, Rev. Alfred Brown, an Episcopal minister from Livingston, held the town’s first Protestant church services in the local schoolhouse. Rev. J. F. Pritchard of Livingston soon began conducting regular services, and the Congregational church shared its facilities. Encouraged by Rev. Pritchard in 1892, the Episcopal women’s guild began plans to build St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The name changed in 1895 to St. Mark’s, and a subscription paper raised $900. St. Mark’s cornerstone was laid in the fall of 1895. Rev. Pritchard and the Rt. Rev. Dr. Leigh R. Brewer, Missionary Bishop of the Episcopal District of Montana, Idaho and Utah, conducted the first services in February 1896. St. John’s Episcopal Church in Butte and individuals in Chicago and Waterton, New York, donated many interior furnishings for the $2,215 building. By 1899, the women’s guild had cleared the debt through diligent fundraising. Designed by F. S. Hornbeck and constructed by skilled craftsmen under local builder O. M. Lanphear, the Gothic Revival stone building reflects the English roots of the Episcopal church. Its cut and fitted native limestone, vertical Gothic emphasis, and stained glass have made it historically significant as Big Timber’s oldest standing church and a memorial to the dedicated members of its founding congregation.

Big Timber, Montana · United States