11 Most Endangered

Virginia City

Year Listed: 1992, 1993, 1994
Location: Virginia City , Montana
Current Status: Saved
Threat: Deterioration, Neglect

Latest News

The preservation of this 11 Most site was supported by Save America's Treasures, a program that is facing elimination in the proposed federal budget. Join our campaign to save this component of preservation funding, which has restored 1,100 structures and collections and created 16,000 jobs coast to coast.

Significance

The western frontier boomtown where Montana's first newspaper was founded, Virginia City declined when the gold rush ended, and its population dropped from 2,500 residents at its peak to about 150 citizens. Today, the town's small Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, and Italianate buildings remain largely intact, primarily due to the preservation efforts of a Montana family who began restoring the structures in the 1940s. But this National Historic Landmark is in precarious condition because citizens lack the necessary financial and technical resources to stave off its deterioration.

The film was created by the Montana History Foundation
with the support of many generous donors.

Updates

The battle for Virginia City's future has been as spirited as any Western epic. Charles and Sue Bovey, two of the West's most determined and colorful preservationists, undertook a lifelong effort to preserve the town in the 1940s. By the 1990s, however, the Bovey's son was financially unable to maintain the collection he had inherited. After working seven years to find a long term steward to protect historic buildings and artifacts in Virginia City and Nevada City—including consideration of Virginia City as a new unit of the National Park Service—the Trust worked with the Montana Preservation Alliance to convince the Montana Legislature to purchase these properties from the Bovey Family in 1997. Today, Virginia City is managed by the Montana Heritage Commission which has raised private and public money to stabilize and restore 248 historic buildings and provide curation facilities for over one million artifacts.