They were the pillars of the community when they were built at the turn of the 20th century – a unique offering of stately Renaissance Revival architecture brought to a young city of Billings. But a hundred years later, their fragile bones no longer hold up when compared with newer construction, their once-vital framework stretched beyond repair from decades of wear and tear.

By the new millennium, Broadwater and McKinley Elementary schools had advanced into disarray and are facing the harsh, discriminating reality of their age. 

So begins a long and heated process of what to do with these schools. The first in a series of public meetings has begun for residents and the schools’ task force leaders to decide what to do with these two rare treasures. 

Caught between the preservation-loving side that wants to keep the character of the neighborhood, and the side that wants to tear them down and rebuild for safety reasons, the future of these schools as we know them today hangs in the balance.

Over the next several months, public meetings at both schools will be held where members of CTA Architects will present their idea of solutions to the issues at hand.

Options will include renovating them to bring them up to code; building onto or nearby the existing structures to handle the demands of steady student body increases; or tearing them down completely and starting over.

Therein lies the challenge of pleasing everyone, and each option is a tremendous undertaking from any vantage point.

McKinley’s first meeting was standing-room only last week, packed with parents, students and concerned neighbors bringing with them a diverse range of emotionally charged requests.

McKinley Elementary

Construction of McKinley Elementary School began in 1905 in a wide-open area of town, surrounded by acres of vacant land. Traffic on 8th Avenue North and North 31st Street in those days consisted of slow horse-drawn carriages and a lot of foot traffic, back when kids and teachers walked to school on dusty trails.

The original school was completed in June 1906 at a cost of $60,524. It held eight classrooms for kindergarten through sixth grade. In 1917, six more rooms were built, an addition that strictly adhered to the charm and character of the original building.

To date, 30,000 students over the last century have walked on its original wood floors and under the arched doorways. They have hung their coats on hooks that would outlast those made today.

The boiler in the basement looks more like a vintage bank vault, where inconsistent heat travels up and out through clanking exposed radiators, causing teachers to compete for their voice in the classrooms.

But it is those rare and authentic details that are driving a substantial number of residents to fight to keep the original buildings, but renovate them to bring them up to electrical and fire codes, and to finally comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

McKinley task force member Lisa DuBeau became emotional when asked what she would like to see happen.

“I want to keep this school,” she said. “I want to make it so that kids can have everything they need, correct electricity outlets because right now we don’t. I want good lighting for them. I want it computer acceptable. I want it to be user-friendly for teachers and students, and I want McKinley to stay.”

In 1957, a more modern-style annex was built on to the north side of McKinley Elementary School. Many at the meeting suggested doing away with that building because its character is drastically different than that of the original building. Laminated flooring and cement block dominate its interior, and the design of the building does little, administrators said, in the way of solving any significant spatial issues.

Then there is the ever-present parking dilemma – around McKinley today, clogged narrow city streets outline its footprint, where drivers must carefully maneuver their way through, exercising care and caution as they look out for hundreds of small pedestrians.

But with McKinley occupying a whole city block and nowhere really to expand, one attendee at the meeting suggested buying and tearing down homes in the immediate area to create more space.

That wasn’t received well by fellow attendee and noted local historian Kevin Kooistra-Manning. Not surprisingly, he staunchly objected to tearing down historic homes.

Today, McKinley serves 308 students, while its official capacity is only at 270.

Broadwater Elementary

Three years after McKinley was built, Broadwater Elementary School was begun to the nearby southwest. The school was built in three different phases and finally finished in 1920.

The school sits on Broadwater Avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets in the heart of Billings’ historical district. As today’s generation zips by the school despite the posted slowdown of 25 mph within that area during school hours, they likely read the etching of 1909 on the building as its address. In keeping with the true character of yesteryear, the numbers were hand-carved into the façade of the building, perhaps in a pioneering effort to envision that it would withstand the test of time.

Back in the day, Billings’ population was around 10,000. Broadwater Elementary was considered a far-West End school, pushing the boundaries of a vast landscape of unfarmed fields. The area wouldn’t know it would one day need to accommodate a drastic increase of students, hold lots of traffic and struggle to meet building codes.

Broadwater’s first public task force meeting was held a couple of weeks ago, to a much smaller crowd of about 40. Chairwoman Julie Anderson, whose daughter attends first grade at Broadwater, said the issues she hears most about begin in the basement.

In the basement, the floors in the bathrooms are cracked and peeling, and the walls in the hallways are narrow and draped with exposed wiring.

The music room and the library are housed in the basement, but Mrs. Anderson said the kids dislike going down there because many feel it’s scary, and fear getting lost or being “confronted by a bully.”

Another common complaint stems from the amount of time it takes to usher students up and down several flights of stairs several times each day.

Despite the challenges, Mrs. Anderson said about 99 percent of the attendees at Broadwater’s meeting want to keep the building, and that “morale is always really positive here.”

Mrs. Anderson also expressed concern for the time it will take no matter what decision is reached. “If they do a remodel, it will take 18 to 24 months,” she stated. “Will they have to work around students, or do you house them in a different building completely? What do you do with the kids?” she posed. “There are all those issues that come with it, and the costs of that. So people at the meeting were more inclined to keep the original building.

“I don’t mind doing the work from now until May when we submit our results to the Board of Trustees,” she continued. “What I think is going to be the big challenge is selling it to the public.”

Like McKinley, Broadwater still has its original wood floors and metal coat hooks. Other traditional features include doors that slide vertically, and when closed, serve as chalkboards. Without a doubt the most beloved attractions at both schools are the old-time fire escapes that aren’t constructed today.

Broadwater serves 335 kindergarten through sixth-grade students. The parking situation there is a little better than it is at McKinley, but not by much. Today, it sits on one of Billings’ busiest streets, and parents and buses there too feel the daily crunch of not having enough elbow room.

The Orchard standard

Then there’s Orchard, and the “Orchard standard.”

Whatever the solution to McKinley and Broadwater schools, it is the so-called “Orchard standard” that the school board is recommending as the ultimate guide to the final result.

Orchard Elementary School sits on Jackson Street in the heart of Billings’ South Side, and it recently underwent a multi-million dollar renovation, resulting in a radical transformation and inspiring the so-called “Orchard standard.”

Some of those standards set forth for other schools include providing adequate space for special services, such as education and counseling, and providing adequate space in the classrooms, and for art, music and technology.

It’s a tall order for those schools where space is scarce. At Orchard, in taking advantage of the liberal square footage the location has as its property, wide well lighted hallways extend in several different directions throughout the school. A large gymnasium is separated from the cafeteria, where at both McKinley and Broadwater schools they are one and the same and very small comparatively.

In this economically challenged area of town, Orchard Elementary school today is its crowning achievement, and one that Principal Mark Venner said empowers his students and their families to take pride of ownership in the neighborhood. “We couldn’t ask for a better facility. Along with the Orchard standard comes the amount of pride that the neighborhood kids and teachers have in this building. We have very few problems. We’ve become the community hub.” Orchard serves 327 students, with a capacity for 425.

You’re invited

Throughout the next year, task force leaders will gather and log public comment, hoping that input from everyone, not just people directly impacted, will help decide on designs for solutions.

Broadwater task force chairwoman Julie Anderson said she was pleasantly surprised with turnout for the first round of meetings. “Everyone was really upbeat. They’re very excited to think they even get a chance at something like Orchard.”

The next round of public meetings at McKinley and Broadwater schools is scheduled for January.