Cass Gilbert was born on November 24, 1859, in Zanesville, Ohio, the son of General and Mrs. Samuel Augustus Gilbert. He received his education at MacAlester College, St. Paul, Minnesota and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge after working in a St. Paul architect's office. Following graduation, he traveled throughout Europe and upon his return, entered the office of McKim, Mead, and White, Architects in New York City. A year later, in 1882, he established his own office in St. Paul. Cass Gilbert is credited by some as being the father of the skyscraper. He designed several well-known buildings in New York and Washington, D.C. In 1903, he was commissioned to design the rebuilding of the Montana Club, in Helena, Montana, after it had been destroyed in a 1902 fire. The club members wished to retain the "desirable features" of their first building which Gilbert then incorporated into a structure of Spanish Renaissance design. The cost of the building and furnishings exceeded $100,000. Cass Gilbert died in Brockenhurst, England, on May 17, 1934.