Havre Historic Post Office Receives Award

Havre Historic Post Office has been chosen to receive a 2015 Montana Historic Preservation Award in January.

Four awards from the Montana Historical Society are being given in the Jan. 23 ceremony. The award the old Havre post office is receiving, the award for outstanding preservation rehabilitation project, is given out once every two years.

"We are honored," said Erica Farmer, speaking for herself and her husband Marc Whitacre, the owners of the building. " ... We're proud we have it."

Whitacre said that he was glad that they could bring the award to Havre instead of having it go to a bigger city in the state.

They bought the then-dilapidated building in 2012 and have been putting work into it ever since. The building has received a major facelift as Farmer and Whitacre and those helping them have redone floors, walls, ceilings, windows and much more, in addition to revamping the infrastructure.

Work in some of the rooms was completed using a National Park Services Save America's Treasures grant in 2012, which they received by partnering with Opportunity Link Inc. The grant was $100,000 with a one-to-one match and Opportunity Link helped provide the match through service hours by volunteers in their Community Service Volunteer Program and Volunteers In Service to America Program.

They unveiled the changing of the name of the post office to Havre Historic Post Office during Havre's Festival Days in September.

"I don't mean to denigrate anyone else's project, but this is truly been a big project," Whitacre said. "This isn't a matter of reroofing a school house, which in some communities attracts a lot of attention. It's taken a lot more resources and persistence because portions of the facility have basically been built from the ground up. Every subsystem had to be addressed: electrical, plumbing, heating, cosmetic stuff. And you have to get a structure for the future of the building. ... All those things have to be done; it's an ongoing project."

Farmer said living in the building and remodeling it has been quite an experience. The end is in sight as far as remodeling the rooms so they can rent them out as offices and for a home, but maintenance means their work will never be finished.

They decided to live in the building to better take care of it and to offset the living expenses they would be paying if they had a house in addition to the post office.

In addition to renting out the smaller rooms as offices, they rent out the primary floor for events such as parties, wine tastings, book signings and more. The reception for "Winter in the Blood," a movie which had some of its scenes filmed in Havre, was at the old post office February. In January, they will be hosting a book reading from Margy Bernstein and N.B. Miller.

The Montana Historic Preservation award ceremony will be in Helena Jan. 23 at the Myrna Loy Center at 2:30 p.m.