In the church's yard, at the front and between the church and the old rectory, stands this large black painted steel cross. Standing about 25 to 30 feet tall, it is decorated with a pair of concentric circles between which eight maple leaves are spaced equally in pairs around the circumference.
The National Register has an incorrect address for this church. It is not at 714 Alder Street, but at 405 Alder Street, on the corner of Alder Street and East Fourth Street. As well, no plaque was to be found at the site. With the construction of a new Catholic Church on the north side of town the church holds irregular masses.
Anaconda architect W. W. Hyslop designed St. Peter’s Austrian Roman Catholic Church, constructed in 1898. Its contrasting colors, pointed arches, side buttresses, tall pointed steeple, ornate terra cotta panels, and rose window reflect the High Victorian Gothic style. Built as an alternative to the Irish-dominated St. Paul’s Church, St. Peter’s primarily served Anaconda’s Croatian, Slovenian, and Montenegrin community. For Slavic smelter workers and their families, whose home countries were then part of the Austrian empire, the church helped ease the transition to America. Father John Pirnat, himself from Slovenia, was instrumental in convincing the diocese to construct St. Peter’s. He served as the church’s pastor for over fifty years, raising the funds for the 1902 rear addition as well as for many other Anaconda Catholic institutions. Father Pirnat often preached in Serbo-Croatian, performed traditional Slavic funeral and wedding services, and led the church in celebrating such ethnic holidays as Mesopust (a pre-Lenten carnival). In so doing, he made St. Peter’s a pillar of Anaconda’s Slavic community and an important bridge between the old and new worlds.
From the Montana History Wiki