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Office of Planning and Grants Date: 18 September, 2009 To: Mayor Engen and Members of the Missoula City Council Item: Free Speech Corner and Reinactment From: Philip Maechling, 258-4706 I will be out of town Wednesday, but I give you my voiced/written support for the proclamation and event on October 2nd. The "Free Speech Corner" will also be nominated as a contributing site in the Downtown Historic District, when we add contributing sites to the historic district later this year. Asa a contributing site it will be eligible for an historic sign through the Montana Historical Society historic signs program. The story is so interesting, and the intersection of Front and Higgins itself was monumental in the history of Missoula, as the “home” of Missoula’s financial, social and political powerhouse, the Missoula Mercantile/First National Bank/A.B. Hammond conglomerate of businesses. So it was the logical place to demonstrate peacefully for the rights of workers, since the conglomerate had so many of them. 1909 WAS A “BOOM” YEAR, WITH THE Milwaukee Railroad coming to Missoula’s south side, the new County Courthouse almost completed, the Palace Hotel and Masonic lodge completed, and the Forest Service Regional office created,