When he did, the University of Montana graduate of 1958 was drawn to his old neighborhood.
He and college roommates had shared a room in a basement apartment of the H.O. Bell house at the corner of Hilda and Keith. And Oliver lived for another 2 1/2 two years at the Sigma Chi House on Gerald.
Now retired from the television news business, Oliver, who grew up in Billings, lives back in his old college town. Last year, he wrote a story for the fall issue of UM's Montanan magazine about the well-preserved area bordered by Mount Sentinel, South Avenue, Higgins Street and the Clark Fork River.
As a companion to the piece, Oliver enlisted a cameraman and editors from the journalism school to produce a short film touting the history, architecture and preservation of Missoula's university district housing.
Available on YouTube, the video lasts less than five minutes but makes a perfect entry point for what's going down Sunday at Oliver's old frat house. Longtime advocates of the University Area Homeowners Association - the first such association in Montana - will be honored in a celebration of the 2007 Preservation Excellence Award from the Montana Preservation Alliance.
Oliver worked for NBC from 1966 to 1996, covering such stories as the refugees from the fall of Saigon, Cambodia and Laos in 1975. A generation of Americans ate dinner to his mellifluous voice on the nightly news, a voice that has lost no timbre with time. It overlays the introductory frames of the film showing a black-and-white photo of the tree-ringed Oval in UM's early days.
“At the turn of the 20th century, the campus at the University of Montana was pretty sparse, just three buildings, and there were wide-open spaces between the campus and the few private homes built along the Clark Fork River,” Oliver said. “There was a reluctance to build here for fear the university might fail. But it didn't. It prospered. And as the student body and faculty grew, more and more homes were built near the campus.”
As early as 1906, Oliver explains on the film, homeowners had the foresight to spearhead a drive to plant rows of Norwegian maples along the streets. A.J. Gibson set the tone with striking architectural designs - Queen Ann, Tudor, Craftsman.
The fabulous Spotswood Mansion, built for lumber and mercantile baron Edward L. Bonner, occupied an entire city block to the east of what's now Hellgate High School. When it was put up for sale in the late 1950s it received no bids. The mansion was demolished and replaced by condominiums, which Oliver said “led to a reawakening” in the university district.
Eventually, the reawakening prompted formation of the University Area Homeowners Association in 1972.
Most of the founders of the association are gone now, said Bob Rowe, who helped organize Sunday's event. But the association remains strong, with some 100 families on the rolls today.
They live in one of Missoula's most diverse neighborhoods, one that includes small businesses, Paxson Elementary and Hellgate High, churches, apartments, condos, rentals and private residences.
Part of the UAHA district was listed as a National Historic District in 1993.
Philip Perszyk, one of 19 people who'll be honored Sunday, moved with wife Karen to Evans Avenue in 1985. He became involved with the homeowners association a few years later.
“I think there was a point when the university wanted to run buses up and down Maurice and they were already running them on Arthur,” Perszyk said. “I felt we should have discussions about that, so I asked the Homeowners and they helped out kind of guiding me on how to deal with those kinds of things.”
Perszyk co-chaired a committee to rebuild Paxson School at about that time, and went on to serve on the Homeowners' board for a number of years, including a term as president. He served two terms on the Missoula Historic Preservation Commission as well.
“I guess I have a pretty deep passion for preserving what's here,” Perszyk said. “We deliberately moved into this area - we just liked the way it looked - but I didn't realize there were no serious protections here. You learn that sometime along the way.”
Roberta and Merle Manis live in a home on Fifth Street East that was built as part of the C.P. Higgins estate in 1891. They've been there 40 years, in a brick home they bought straight out of college for either $14,000 or $14,500.
“It wasn't stylish to have older houses at that time,” said Roberta Manis, another of Sunday's honorees. To estimate its value today, she added, “You have to use a factor of 10.”
“It's been a good house for us, and we've enjoyed protecting its architectural integrity,” Manis said.
Preserving the neighborhood might not have been as pleasant, but Manis served several years on the Homeowners Association board and neighborhood council trying to do just that.
“You spend lots of time at City Hall,” she said. “The biggest fight is to keep density away from the door.”
That's always a challenge next door to a university that vitalizes the community but presents constant growth and traffic issues to its neighborhoods.
“They haven't done the greatest job in the world,” Oliver said. “But I think they've done a pretty good job of retaining the character and renovating and rehabbing and doing the things that have been necessary to prevent this university housing from becoming what it has in many other cities, which is just kind of a bunch of flop houses for students.”
Reporter Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com
Celebrate
The public is invited Sunday at 2 p.m. to the Sigma Chi House at 1110 Gerald Ave. as founders and longtime advocates of the University Area Homeowners Association will be honored for their work in maintaining the character and architecture of the district.
Honorees: Tom Finch, Betty Haddon, Sam Haddon, Ian Lange, Roberta Manis, Helen Orendain, Philip Perszyk, Marguerite Ragan, Ty Robinson, Paul Sopko, Rod Susen
In memoriam: Elaine and Paul Crowley, Helen and Jack Doty, Chuck Gibson, Jack Patterson, Harley Raykowski, Bud Schultz
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