1 day Ago By MIKE SMITH [email protected]
Ironically, perhaps, water is the suspected cause of damage that brought down the towering flagpole atop the historic Butte Water Co. Building across from the courthouse. Butte-Silver Bow Public Works crews closed a section of Granite Street on Monday, and with help from a private crane contractor, removed the pole.
Backlit by morning sun Monday, Tim Seymour and Lucas Pyrah use a lift to approach the flagpole atop the Butte Water Co. building. It’s too early to tell if or when a repaired pole or a new pole will go up, said John Sullivan, Butte-Silver Bow’s government buildings manager.
The damage must be examined up close before anything else is decided. “I don’t know what the grand plan is right now,” Sullivan said. “It has to come down now because of the safety aspects.
” The concern, of course, is that it will fall and hurt someone. The pole skies at least two stories higher than the building and is constructed in a few sections, with the broadest one at the bottom. The tops of two of those sections are splitting where they transition to the next smaller section.
Tim Seymour steadies a flagpole brace Monday morning as Lucas Pyrah uses a grinder to remove fasteners securing the pole to the roof of the Butte Water Co. building. The work on Granite Street shut down a portion of the street Monday.
Both men work for Butte-Silver Bow County. Sullivan believes this is what happened: “Water at some point over the years started infiltrating a weld, a pipe-size transition from like 3 inch to 2 inch, and I think water got in and then the freeze-thaw split the pipe,” he said. A flagpole has been affixed to the building for decades, but Sullivan isn’t sure if the one taken down Monday is the original.
He said he can’t recall the last time he’s seen flags flying from it but the county does string it with lights during Christmas seasons. Sullivan said he’d like to see a flagpole returned to the building but that will be a discussion for later. “The primary focus right now is to remove the danger,” he said.
Tim Seymour and Lucas Pyrah attach a crane sling to the flagpole that has long occupied the roof of the Butte Water Co. building on Granite Street. The two men, with help from a crane operator, removed the flagpole Monday morning.
The Butte Water Co. Building was built in 1907 for the Montana Independent Telephone Co., and the Butte Water Co.
became its occupant in 1918. Butte-Silver Bow took over the company and local water system in 1992 and residents can still pay their water bills inside. Public Works has some offices there.
It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and was designed by Montana architect George Shanley in a Beaux Arts style, according to the Montana Historical Society. It says the building, “with its slender Ionic columns, arcade and balconies, comprises a group of civic buildings in this expressive style.” Lucas Pyrah, left, and Tim Seymour watch as a crane lifts the flagpole from the roof of the Butte Water Co.
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