The Mountain Brook School is just one step away from receiving a coveted spot on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The Montana State Historic Preservation Review Board approved the schoolhouse’s nomination at its Jan. 23 meeting. The application will now be sent to the Department of the Interior for a final review by the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places. Final decision notices are typically posted within 45 days. 

Residents living on the mountain slopes east of Creston built the Mountain Brook schoolhouse in 1922, with later additions including a front porch, teacherage and running water and electricity. A second multi-purpose building was added to the one-acre campus in 1968. 

Dwindling class sizes forced the school to consolidate with Cayuse Prairie in 1992, but the campus is still used as a community hub and gathering space for residents on the eastern side of the Flathead Valley. 

Members of the State Historic Preservation Review Board said the community’s love for the school shone through in the application for the National Register.  

“One day I may calculate how many hours went into this nomination, but let’s just say it was a labor of love and leave it at that,” said Sharon Martin, a board member of the Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation and head of the organization’s 1922 Schoolhouse Rehabilitation Committee. 

If approved by the federal Keeper, Mountain Brook School will join the list of 158 historic sites in Flathead County. 

Reporter Hailey Smalley can be reached at 758-4433 or [email protected].