The Fergus County High School, located at 412 6th Ave., S., in

Lewistown, Montana Lewistown is a city in and the county seat of Fergus County, Montana, United States. The population was 5,952 at the 2020 census. Lewistown is located in the geographic center of the state, southeast of Great Falls and northwest of Billings. Fir ...

, was built in 1919 and expanded at later dates. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1985. It includes

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

and

Beaux Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...

. Its first two units were designed by architect J.G. Link. With . The building is also known as Old Fergus High School. The current high school in the area is the Fergus High School.

1986 school shooting

On December 4, 1986, 14-year-old Kristofer Hans intended to shoot his French teacher at Fergus High School, for a failing grade. Instead, Henrietta Smith, who was substituting for LaVonne Simonfy, was shot in the face and died. Hans fired several other shots as he fled, wounding vice principal John Moffatt, and two students. He then ran about a mile to his home, where he was arrested after the police surrounded his house. A classmate said Hans had repeatedly threatened to kill Ms. Simonfy, saying, "I'm going to blow Simonfy's head off." He was charged as an adult, convicted and sentenced to 206 years in prison. However he was paroled in 2015 and now lives in Nebraska as of February 2018.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Fergus County, Montana Renaissance Revival architecture in Montana Beaux-Arts architecture in Montana School buildings completed in 1919 1919 establishments in Montana School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana {{Montana-NRHP-stub