Historic Resources Committee

From: Barry Sulam

Bruce  Selyem  started the Wooden Grain Elevator Society twenty years ago. You probably know him already since he lives in Bozeman and once worked as the photographer for MOR.  He ought to have leads to many examples. 

In Three Forks the vacant elevators by RR park have been looking for new owners. I met the owner through the Headwaters Museum. She had some ideas and buyers proposals.  There is a converted metal elevator on Norris Road used as a home. I met the owner. 

What about keeping them as grain elevators run by a cooperative that is national in scope.
That would extend their useful lifecycle in a less market driven economic model. Most elevators are next to RR sidings and those ROWs are controlled by railroad use policies, as you know from Depot in Bozeman. Perhaps those RR have constrained the viability of the original purposes and will do so to adaptive use.

A friend of mine, Bill H. of Tenn. was a real stickler about the correct grammatical terms for adaptive use. He said using reuse is redundant and one either says reuse or adaptive use but not both.

I have a question answered by several architects on other building types, that could help these grain elevators' projects if you include it in your study: could Historic Tax Credits help incentivize the reuse of the Elevators and rehab? Did the recent changes to HTC regs hurt it's use?  

Your project in Livingston would make a great case study for the online course I offer at 
https://www.cascadianow.org/learning-places

learningplacescanvas@gmail.com