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The Morelli Bridge in Reeder's Alley was recently nominated for the National Historical Register.

The Montana Historical Society has announced eight new nominations for the National Historic Register, including the Morelli Bridge above Reeder’s Alley built in 1892.

The nomination form was prepared by Jon Axline, a cultural resource specialist/historian at the Montana Department of Transportation.

“The Morelli Bridge is associated with the Helena City Council’s efforts to improve the local infrastructure during the 1890s,” wrote Axline in the nomination form. “The city sanctioned projects that included street grading and paving, sidewalk and sewer installations, and the construction of a massive cut on Lawrence Street in downtown in 1892.”

To be eligible for the National Historic Register, a property has to be associated with significant events or significant people, have its historical integrity intact or yield important information about history.

For the Morelli Bridge nomination, it's listed as associated with significant historical events as far as engineering and transportation and having its historical integrity intact, meaning it reflects the time period it was built in.

According to the nomination form, “The period of significance begins in 1892 with the construction of the bridge and ends in 1972, the end of the historic period. The dates of significance include 1892, the year of the bridge’s construction, and 1893, the year the road that approaches the bridge was completed and the bridge put into actual use.”

The presence of two railroads, the Northern Pacific and the Montana Central, brought transcontinental connections to Helena, sparking an economic boom and population growth. The bridge is tied to Helena’s transformation from a wooden mining town into a brick and masonry city.

The need for better roads for the growing population was an infrastructure must, so this led to the Helena City Council authorizing the "extension of Howie Street from a point about 230 feet south of the intersection of Adams Street 500 feet to the intersection of [Donaldson] Street," according to the nomination form. This extension authorized the building of Morelli Bridge to connect the First and Third wards of Helena.

Morelli Bridge is the oldest remaining timber bridge in Montana. It’s made from locally quarried stone.

“The bents and abutments reflect the stonemason’s craft and the stone used for their construction was extracted from a nearby quarry on Mount Helena by a quarryman who lived near the bridge site,” wrote Axline. “Indeed, the builder of the bents and abutments lived only one hundred yards from the bridge in a stone house he also constructed about the same time he constructed the Morelli Bridge. A path still exists between his house and the north approach of the bridge.”

The bridge measures 96 feet long and 22 feet wide and was designed by Swiss immigrant and stonemason Carlo "Charles" Morelli. Folklore tells that he based the bridge’s design off a bridge in Italy, but it is not known which one.

After the bridge construction was completed, Howie Street was being surfaced when a tragedy occurred. One of the timbers that supported the rock crusher’s bin failed. Seven tons of rock was dumped onto Thomas Joyce, who had only been employed two days on the rock crusher. He was killed on impact.

Work also stopped on the project in December and January due to a Montana winter. It was set to resume on March 28, 1893. On March 14, a resolution was introduced by an alderman to the council to discontinue work on Howie Street until there was a cost estimate for the project's completion. At the time, two aldermen were elected to represent each of the seven wards in Helena. The city council passed this resolution.

An alderman for the First Ward argued for rescinding the resolution and allowing the project to be completed. Among the reasons for completion were people wanted work and tax revenue from the section opened by the road and bridge would pay for the project in the next few years. Six aldermen voted to continue the project, four voted against it and three missed the meeting, so work on Howie Street resumed in the spring of 1893.

The Morelli Bridge nomination was considered at the Sept. 29 Montana State Historic Preservation Review Board Meeting. It passed the nomination phase and will be reviewed at the federal level by the National Park Service, which oversees the National Historic Register.

Eve Byron, a public information officer for the Montana Historical Society, noted that the advisory board is a critical crowd, and that once a property passes the nomination phase, odds are high that it will become listed on the National Historic Register.

Some parts of Morelli Bridge were replaced in 1975 as part of Helena’s Urban Renewal Program, but the structure still holds much of its integrity and original design.

“...It retains a high degree of architectural integrity as an exceptional example of a late nineteenth century timber bridge with unique and distinctive rubblestone abutments and piers built from locally quarried stone,” wrote Axline. “Other than the replacement of the deck and original guardrails, no significant changes or modifications to the bridge have occurred since its construction.”

Megan Michelotti can be reached at megan.michelotti@helenair.com.

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The Morelli Bridge in Reeder's Alley was recently nominated for the National Historical Register.

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