Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Category
Social Sciences/Humanities
Abstract/Artist Statement
In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed the “Model Cities Act” into law. A part of Johnson’s Great Society, Model Cities was a national urban renewal program that sought to renew all aspects of society and included anything from the creation of parks and recreational facilities to increasing funding for senior citizens’ programs. My research examines the implementation of Model Cities in Butte, Montana. Whereas Model Cities was most visibly seen in metropolises like Detroit and Baltimore as a means to curtail riots and racial strife, the Butte program, in the words of the program’s director, James Murphy, wished to drag Butte into the twentieth century.
I note that Butte, given its background as a resource extraction mining town, was in need of Model Cities. Lacking infrastructure and plagued by environmental woes, the Butte program had much potential due to its focus not only on urban renewal but social uplift. However, the program was also a source of great controversy. In attempting to urbanize and modernize Butte, one of the program’s largest endeavors was the destruction of hundreds of old buildings. I argue that the Butte program engaged in physical and cultural destruction to reform Butte. As urbanization became a more pressing issue in Montana, the replacement of historic buildings with new ones was meant to help detach Butteians from the past and make Butte a thriving urban center. And with a host of new social programs that targeted health issues like alcoholism, the program attempted to sever a longstanding Butte culture that resisted social aid and state assistance. I conclude that the program was partially successful in that it brought modern infrastructure and social programs to Butte but was unable to destroy Butte’s nostalgia of the past.
My research is a thematic reconstruction of the Model Cities program in Butte from 1968-1975. This project examines the developments of three key goals of the program: economic development, physical environment, and social services. I tell the story of the Butte program through these three themes and explore how policies changed and developed from 1968-1974. Most essential in examining these themes are primary sources from the archival collections at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, Montana Historical Society, and the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives. The most present sources are Senator Mike Mansfield’s papers, which contain Buttiean concerns about the program, letters to Butte officials such as Mayor Mario Micone, and the outline of the Model Cities program.
This research is the first substantive scholarship on the Butte program. Other scholars have overlooked the program but this paper places Model Cities as one of the key urban developments in Montana in the twentieth century and the most important urban renewal program in Butte’s history. Additionally, this paper contributes to the understanding of federal policymaking of the 1960s-1970s in showing the transition from LBJ’s Great Society to Richard Nixon’s New Federalist approach to urban renewal.
Mentor Name
Anya Jabour
Destroying and Creating History: Butte, Montana’s Model City Program, 1968-1975
In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed the “Model Cities Act” into law. A part of Johnson’s Great Society, Model Cities was a national urban renewal program that sought to renew all aspects of society and included anything from the creation of parks and recreational facilities to increasing funding for senior citizens’ programs. My research examines the implementation of Model Cities in Butte, Montana. Whereas Model Cities was most visibly seen in metropolises like Detroit and Baltimore as a means to curtail riots and racial strife, the Butte program, in the words of the program’s director, James Murphy, wished to drag Butte into the twentieth century.
I note that Butte, given its background as a resource extraction mining town, was in need of Model Cities. Lacking infrastructure and plagued by environmental woes, the Butte program had much potential due to its focus not only on urban renewal but social uplift. However, the program was also a source of great controversy. In attempting to urbanize and modernize Butte, one of the program’s largest endeavors was the destruction of hundreds of old buildings. I argue that the Butte program engaged in physical and cultural destruction to reform Butte. As urbanization became a more pressing issue in Montana, the replacement of historic buildings with new ones was meant to help detach Butteians from the past and make Butte a thriving urban center. And with a host of new social programs that targeted health issues like alcoholism, the program attempted to sever a longstanding Butte culture that resisted social aid and state assistance. I conclude that the program was partially successful in that it brought modern infrastructure and social programs to Butte but was unable to destroy Butte’s nostalgia of the past.
My research is a thematic reconstruction of the Model Cities program in Butte from 1968-1975. This project examines the developments of three key goals of the program: economic development, physical environment, and social services. I tell the story of the Butte program through these three themes and explore how policies changed and developed from 1968-1974. Most essential in examining these themes are primary sources from the archival collections at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, Montana Historical Society, and the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives. The most present sources are Senator Mike Mansfield’s papers, which contain Buttiean concerns about the program, letters to Butte officials such as Mayor Mario Micone, and the outline of the Model Cities program.
This research is the first substantive scholarship on the Butte program. Other scholars have overlooked the program but this paper places Model Cities as one of the key urban developments in Montana in the twentieth century and the most important urban renewal program in Butte’s history. Additionally, this paper contributes to the understanding of federal policymaking of the 1960s-1970s in showing the transition from LBJ’s Great Society to Richard Nixon’s New Federalist approach to urban renewal.