Description

School rendering by Richard Schuppert. The Great Falls Railroad Historic District is historically significant for its associations with the city’s major historic growth periods. Great Falls benefitted economically, politically and socially from the development. The design qualifies for a National Register listing for Criterion A due to its association with Great Northern, Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroads in Montana. The district meets Criterion B for its associations with Paris Gibson and James J. Hill. It also qualifies under Criterion C for the high degree of architectural integrity retained and the influential architects responsible for many of the buildings’ designs. The architects include George Bird, George Shanley, Johannes Van Teylingen, Henry Hall Johnson, and Richard Schuppert.

About the Artist

Richard C. Schuppert

Born in Kansas to German immigrants. He worked as a laborer on his father’s farm before attending Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University), from which he graduated in 1909 with a bachelor’s degree in architecture.

For the next few years, Schuppert held various jobs in Kansas City, Missouri, working as superintendent of a manufacturing company; cement finisher for a contractor; draftsman for a smelting company; designer and detailer for an urban railway company; and superintendent of an ornamental concrete factory.

By 1918, Schuppert had married and was living in Montana, where he listed himself as an independent architect and engineer. In the early 1920s, the Schupperts moved to California, settling in Oakland.