BOZEMAN HISTORIC RESOURCE SURVEY:

2008 Revised Edition

Prepared for:

Planning Department City of Bozeman P.O. Box 1230 Bozeman, Montana 59771

Prepared by:

Renewable Technologies, Inc. 313 Metals Bank Building Butte, Montana 59701

February 2008

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROJECT BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY ...... 3 METHODOLOGY ...... 3 ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT ...... 4 2007-08 ADDITIONS TO THE REPORT ...... 5 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION ...... 6 THE GALLATIN VALLEY BEFORE SETTLEMENT ...... 6 BOZEMAN’S URBAN DEVELOPMENT ...... 7 PHASES OF HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENT ...... 9 INTRODUCTION ...... 9 TOWNSITE PHASE (1864-1872) ...... 11 VILLAGE PHASE (1873-1883) ...... 15 CIVIC PHASE (1884-1912) ...... 17 PROGRESSIVE PHASE (1913-1929) ...... 26 NATIONALIZATION PHASE (1930-1945) ...... 31 POSTWAR EXPANSION PHASE (1946-1970) ...... 36 CONCLUSION ...... 46 ENDNOTES ...... 47

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Project Background and Methodology

Methodology

This document was originally prepared in 1984, at the completion of a comprehensive historic architectural inventory of Bozeman, Montana. The methodology for that project is described below:

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The Bozeman Historic Resource Survey was conducted in two phases. Phase I of the report involved an intensive survey of the project area as determined by the Bozeman Planning Office and the State Historic Preservation Office. The area covered most of the original boundaries of the City of Bozeman and contained approximately 3,000 structures.

Volunteers from ten neighborhood groups within the study area inventoried each structure using Montana Historical and Architectural Inventory Forms. Photographs were taken of each structure and a photo log was kept.

Phase II of the survey involved an extensive literature and records search of materials related to the City of Bozeman, the Gallatin Valley, and the project area. Tax cards at the Appraiser’s Office, land books, and plat maps in the Clerk and Recorder's Office were examined to determine ownership for each property inventoried. Sanborn Insurance Maps, tax appraisal cards, city directories, and sewer records were used to date the structures and determine their historical occupancy and use. Historical literature, government documents, and archival holdings (including cartographic and photographic collections) of the Museum of the Rockies, Gallatin County Historical Society, Montana State University, and the Montana Historical Society were examined in depth, as was the Avant Courier newspaper.

Building research was limited because Sanborn maps did not cover all of the survey area, and because land books consistently lacked records of early property ownership necessary to determine original ownership of structures.

Data collected from both phases of the survey were used to evaluate the significance of structures and potential historic districts in accordance with the National Register of Historic Places criteria found in 36 CFR 60.6. These criteria, established by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, state that a property is eligible for listing on the National Register if:

…the quality of significance in American history, architecture, archaeology, and culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures,

- 3 - and objects of state and local importance that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship, feeling and association, and:

a) that are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or b) that are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or c) that embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic value, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction; or d) that have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information in prehistory or history.

Each structure also was evaluated in terms of its contribution (or lack thereof) to a potential historic district, based on the following classifications:

1. Primary: Properties of major historical and/or architectural significance and independently eligible for the National Register of Historic Places;

2. Contributing: Properties that contribute to the character of a potential historic district;

3. Neutral: Properties that have lost historic integrity and/or are of a neutral quality and do not contribute to the character of a potential historic district;

4. Intrusive: Properties that have an intrusive quality within a potential historic district.

A color-coded map was prepared reflecting these classifications and used in establishing the historic districts in the project area.

Organization of the Report

This report attempts to explain the physical character of the city, especially its structures (public, industrial, commercial, residential) in historical and architectural terms. It does so (1) by tracing the development (particularly economic) that shaped the history of Bozeman, (2) by discussing the physical growth of the city, particularly in terms of structures and basic city improvements, and (3) by evaluating the architectural trends that characterized the city's development. Political history is discussed to the extent necessary to maintain a sense of historical continuity. Political, civic, and business leaders are mentioned who have been particularly significant in shaping the development of the city. In discussing specific structures, the report refers to historical structures that are still standing by providing the structure's historical name and location.

- 4 - 2007-08 Additions to the Report

In 2007, the City of Bozeman contracted with Renewable Technologies, Inc. to edit the original report and to expand the time period covered to 1970. The intent was to provide additional background and content in advance of potential field inventories that would record buildings from the 1950-1970 era. To accomplish this goal, a windshield survey identified architectural examples from this period to illustrate major trends in residential, commercial, and governmental buildings. In addition, some additional research was conducted using Polk directories, city records, and secondary sources to provide a general context for the postwar years.

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Historical Introduction

The Gallatin Valley Before Settlement

The Gallatin Valley, with its fertile soil and abundant water, attracted and sustained native people for thousands of years. Rings of stones from tipis show that Indians lived at least seasonally in the valley. Many others, from tribes throughout a large region, came during the summer months to gather a variety of native plants, fruits, fish, and game. They also traveled through the valley on well-worn trails to hunt buffalo on the plains. By the early nineteenth century, the Indians were joined by non-native travelers who stayed for varying lengths of time in the Gallatin Valley. In 1805 members of the Corps of Discovery, led by captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, made their way to the headwaters of the Missouri River at the confluence of the Madison, Jefferson and Gallatin rivers, the present location of the Missouri Headwaters State Park. On the return trip east in 1806, Clark's party camped near present-day Bozeman. Over the next few decades, native and non-native people continued to visit and utilize the valley, especially as their travels led them to use Bozeman Pass as a gateway to the Missouri River Basin.i

Permanent settlements took longer to establish and it was not until the gold discoveries in nearby Bannack and Virginia City during the early 1860s that the Gallatin Valley began to experience significant change. At that time, a few enterprising settlers saw the agricultural potential of the valley to raise food supplies for the booming mining communities. The first town, Gallatin City, was located just north of the Gallatin River, on the west bank of the combined Madison and Jefferson rivers. The founders, speculators who had met earlier in Bannack, located the townsite in November 1862. Within a few months, the town boasted dozens of cabins built to attract permanent residents. This scheme failed and when the initial townsite location proved unsatisfactory, residents relocated to the east bank by early 1865. Instrumental in this move were James B. Campbell and his two sons-in-law, James Gallagher and Frank J. Dunbar. After the creation of Gallatin County in 1865, Gallatin City served as the county seat until Bozeman gained the honor two years later.ii

John Bozeman was one of the many disappointed miners who failed to find fortune in the first Montana gold strikes. A Georgian by birth, Bozeman had left his farm and family to strike it rich in the West. When mining proved unprofitable, Bozeman turned to guiding emigrant trains to the gold fields. Unlike the experienced Jim Bridger, who guided newcomers through the Gallatin Valley by skirting Indian lands, Bozeman chose a route that passed through Sioux territory. It ran along the east side of the Big Horn Mountains, over the plains and west through Bozeman Pass, dropping into the Gallatin Valley and on southwest to Bannack. Bozeman’s route was shorter that the boat trip up the Missouri River to Fort Benton or the overland trip to Fort Hall, Idaho, but it also was more dangerous. He soon realized that more gold lay in the fertile soil of the Gallatin Valley

- 6 - than in either mining or guiding. After he met William J. Beall and Daniel E. Rouse in Virginia City in 1863, the three men decided to lay out a townsite in the Gallatin Valley. By then, Beall and Rouse had spent an unsuccessful year near Gallatin City trying to farm the poor soil. Bozeman agreed to return the following spring with another emigrant train. The new townsite, in the more fertile eastern end of the Gallatin Valley, would become Bozeman, Montana.iii

Bozeman’s Urban Development

William J. Beall and Daniel E. Rouse laid out a townsite in 1864 with Main Street as the major east-west axis and Rouse and Bozeman avenues as the north-south cross streets. Beall's first claim, including his part of the townsite, was 160 acres and extended one mile west and one-fourth mile north, primarily west of the Bozeman Avenue line. William H. Tracy soon joined Beall as a partner and together they staked out another claim west of Beall's original 160 acres. After the partnership dissolved, Beall kept the north half and subsequently divided the land into three additions bearing his name. Rouse also claimed 160 acres east of Bozeman Avenue. Beall and Rouse each constructed a log cabin that summer. William W. Alderson and his brother John arrived in mid-July and claimed land south of the original townsite.

In 1870, W. W. DeLacy surveyed the townsite which was then formally platted, as was Rouse's First Addition adjacent to the east of the townsite. The original townsite had declared Main Street to be one hundred feet wide while the width of all other streets was set at sixty feet. Since DeLacy found that some Main Street buildings were over the line, Main Street was redrawn at ninety-three feet. The townsite covered forty acres and adjoining landowners agreed to donate enough ground for streets and alleys to “preserve the symmetry and uniformity of the town.”

Developers in the early 1870s, before the economic depression set in later in the decade, optimistically filed new plats which expanded mostly to the higher and drier ground on the southeast. In 1871 John Guy, of the Guy House hotel, filed Guy's Addition and one year later filed Guy's Second Addition, both to the south and east of Bozeman Avenue. That same year, William H. Tracy platted Tracy's First Addition to the west and Colonel Black filed and platted his addition, mostly in one-acre tracts. W. W. Alderson platted Alderson's Addition in 1873 on part of his homestead claim adjacent to the south of the original townsite and Nelson Story filed to the west.

Developers believed that the hoped-for construction of the Northern Pacific Railway through the valley would bring prosperity, so they began making numerous additions to Bozeman on land to the southeast and southwest of the original townsite. Daniel Rouse platted a second addition adjacent to his first on the south and a third to the west; Frank Harper, the blacksmith, platted a small addition in the southeast; Joseph M. Lindley and John Guy made their addition in fifty-foot lots, extending South Bozeman Avenue “into an area that was formerly a strawberry garden.” As editor of the Avant Courier, William Alderson touted his new Fairview Addition as the fashionable place to live and made

- 7 - Central (Willson) Avenue extra generous in width. Charles Hoffman, later a state senator, platted Hoffman's Addition in the name of his wife, Elizabeth Hoffman. Finally, Park Addition, the most westerly of the additions, included two eighty-acre tracts, one owned by Nelson Story and the other by Walter Cooper and John S. Dickerson, a newspaperman from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Two strips of land were taken from the tracts and set aside for a park, later called Cooper Park. Plans for the park included “shade trees, gravelled walks and drives, and in the center a lake fed by the waters of the West Gallatin.”

Bozeman expanded with additions to the north for the first time in anticipation of the arrival of the railroad with its depot. The Northern Pacific Addition, aptly named, was bisected by the railroad line. Before the addition was formally platted, an avenue eighty feet wide was laid out diagonally, leading directly to the proposed railroad depot site from Main Street. This addition was located in the swampy northeast area that earlier residents had avoided. It was a long time in developing and even today is used primarily for industrial sites. The lure of the depot could not lessen the mire of mud and swamp. Other additions on the north side of Main Street included Babcock and Davis, Beall's to the northeast, and Tracy's Second and Third to the northwest.

Bozeman boosters believed that their city might have a chance to become the site for Montana's state capital. This led to the platting of the aptly named Capitol Hill addition south of the Park Addition in 1890, two years prior to the capital election. That same year, investors primarily from Butte platted the Butte Addition south of the Fairview Addition. By 1890 then, all additions in the survey area had been formally platted, with the exception of Karp’s and Violet’s additions in the northwest corner, both platted in the 1940s.

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Phases of Historical and Architectural Development

Introduction

From 1864 to 1970, Bozeman's architecture and urban development underwent a series of transformations. Certain growth patterns were established well before the turn of the century, influenced by available materials, prevailing technology, and custom. When viewed within an historical context, these changes and those which followed represent Bozeman's shifting patterns of social, economic, and cultural relationships with local, regional, and national events and conditions.

For purposes of examining Bozeman's architectural resources within their historical context, the community's development is presented here in six phases: the Townsite Phase, Village Phase, Civic Phase, Progressive Phase, Nationalization Phase, and Postwar Expansion Phase. The definitions of these phases as they pertain to Bozeman follow.

Townsite Phase (1864-1872): Bozeman's Townsite Phase may be defined as the period immediately following the origination of the townsite, brought on by the need for a supply center for the booming new mining camps of Montana Territory. The period is characterized by the initial development of agricultural and timber resources, which promised stability for the settlement in light of uncertainties associated with transportation and supply routes through Indian territory. Although a few architecturally precocious structures were built during the Townsite Phase, most buildings were constructed of simple materials and by simple methods; log and frame buildings predominated. Commercial and industrial structures commanded attention and manpower, thus establishing early the importance of commerce and agricultural manufacturing to the future of the community.

Village Phase (1873-1883): The Village Phase represented for Bozeman the beginnings of urbanization and culminated in the arrival of the transcontinental railroad and incorporation of the City of Bozeman. The economic base became secure enough to sustain more permanent structures, including churches, schools, and public buildings. While many Victorian commercial buildings were constructed of brick, industrial buildings continued to use wood, and distinctive frame residences of the Carpenter Gothic tradition were prevalent. Sawn ornament in the Carpenter Gothic mode was utilized as an integrative element in rural vernacular house forms. The commercial and industrial potential of Bozeman and the surrounding area emerged as sufficient for continued growth.

Civic Phase (1884-1912): The Civic Phase may be defined as a period of civic coming of age, appropriately inaugurated by incorporation of the City of Bozeman and by the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad. For Bozeman, it meant the attainment of social

- 9 - and economic diversity in the form of the Agricultural College, improved transportation networks, expanded city services and public utilities, and fledgling industries related to agricultural and mineral resources. Victorian Revival architecture built during the Civic Phase encompassed Victorian Gothic, Romanesque Revival, Ruskinian Gothic, Queen Anne, and Colonial Revival. Eclecticism and individualism characterized both commercial and residential architecture, even when house pattern books were the source of designs. A tension developed between diversity and standardization in the nation's growing industrial culture, and this had its analogies in Bozeman's built environment.

Progressive Phase (1913-1929): Bozeman's Progressive Phase was a period of transformation in relation to emerging twentieth century business and professional values. Growth continued steadily as before, but the nature of growth distinguished the Progressive Phase from earlier periods. City governance and politics were transformed by adoption of the Commission-Manager form of government. The Agricultural College increasingly attracted a population which, in accord with national trends, was sympathetic to efficiency and modernization in government as well as in other sectors, such as business and agriculture. Other twentieth century phenomena, especially the increase in automobiles and associated tourism, changed the face of Bozeman. Alteration of older structures was favored over new construction in many instances, and newer buildings, in Arts and Crafts or Mission styles, often stood apart from established forms. Civic organizations mediated social and economic change as Bozeman weathered fluctuations in conditions prior, during and following World War I.

Nationalization Phase (1930-1945): The Nationalization Phase represents Bozeman's emergence into the national milieu associated with the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II. The influence of the Agricultural College in the state's rural counties increased dramatically, leading to expansion of all three phases of the institution: research, instruction, and extension. Military science and engineering vied with agriculture and other traditional concerns of the land grant college as war and economic transformation made their mark on the institution. New forms of communication and entertainment, such as radio and the “talkies,” altered social patterns in Bozeman, just as the New Deal and World War II altered economic, political, administrative, and cultural patterns. Idealization of national industrial culture took architectural form in Art Deco and Moderne styles based on industrial design. Simultaneously, the contrast between such urban ideals and the natural setting of Bozeman, enhanced the community's appeal to residents and visitors alike.

Postwar Expansion Phase (1946-1970): Following the end of World War II, Bozeman entered the Postwar Expansion Phase which was characterized by growth as the population increased and the city limits pushed outward. The impetus for this expansion was the ubiquitous automobile, which encouraged the outward spread from the city center. Commercial development stretched from the downtown center along Main Street westward past 19th Avenue and eastward to the new interstate highway. It also spread northward along North 7th Avenue. Residential developments expanded to new areas around the periphery of the city. The increasing dependence on the automobile was reflected in new architectural styles, from Ranch houses, with their attached garages, to

- 10 - shopping centers surrounded by parking lots. Montana State College expanded not only its student body and its campus but also its status during the postwar years. It was designated Montana State University in 1965.

Townsite Phase (1864-1872)

The Upper East Gallatin Claim Association met for the first time on August 9, 1864, at the settlement then known as Jacob's Crossing. At that meeting, the men renamed the new town and associated district Bozeman, defined the district boundaries, and established a process for making and recording claims. Within a short time, the matter of shelter for the harsh Montana winter became a pressing concern. To ensure building, fencing, and fuel supplies for the settlers, the surrounding timber stands were designated common property for free use by all.iv

The small log cabins of William J. Beall and Daniel E. Rouse were the first to be built and Beall, a builder, offered his assistance to those settlers who may have lacked his skill or knowledge of log construction. The dwellings constructed were serviceable single- bay, gable-roofed cabins with a limited number of door or window openings. Variations included the sawn-wood floor of the F. F. Fridley cabin, and the double cabin of a modified dog-trot style, built by the Mexican settler, Joseph Merraville, and his wife, a Sioux Indian. A portion of this structure was pressed into use as a schoolhouse two years later.v

Greater attention and labor were given to the commercial structures which shared Main Street with many of the dozen or fewer residences. In this earliest state of town development, commercial buildings were distinguished from residential by their use of hewn logs, upper stories, or vertical board and batten siding in the gable ends. The most noteworthy among these was a one-and-one-half story hotel situated on the northwest corner of Bozeman Avenue and Main Street. Stafford and Rice built the gable-roofed structure using rough-hewn, square-notched logs. When the interior was still unfinished, the large, open room served as the site for the 1864 Christmas Eve “grand ball.” A month later, when W. W. Alderson officiated at Stafford's wedding to Sallie Smith, it was hailed as the first marriage ceremony in the county. The building's symbolic significance was further confirmed by its role as a shelter for women and children during an Indian scare the following July; it was purchased subsequently by the Gallatin Masonic Lodge No. 6. The Alderson home, built in 1865-1866 on the Alderson homestead south of the townsite, represents a carry-over of the Stafford and Rice building's features into domestic log structures in Bozeman. The one-and-one-half story house was built of hewn logs and appears to have been a slightly scaled down version of the Stafford and Rice building.vi

Construction methods during Bozeman’s first year for industrial buildings are not documented as well as those for residential and commercial structures. Apparently the methods at hand, however, were adequate for Thomas Cover and Perry McAdow, who lost no time in constructing Bozeman’s first commercial flour and grist mill. Work began

- 11 - in the fall of 1864, and the mill was in operation by the following October. An eight- horsepower endless apron threshing machine operated in conjunction with the mill, at a minimum charge of $50.00 per farmer. The mill continued in operation until 1883.vii

Although timber claims were disallowed by the Upper East Gallatin Claim Association, Zachariah Sales managed to file a homestead claim for timbered land on the Gallatin River, where water power provided excellent conditions for a sawmill operation. Having arrived on John Bozeman's wagon train, Sales established his sawmill in time to influence the town's almost immediate preference for wood frame construction over log. The demand for lumber was such that within the next five years, Sales had at least two competitors. The naming of Salesville in 1883 was an acknowledgement of local development in conjunction with Sales' lumber operations. (The area has been known as Gallatin Gateway since 1927.)viii

Log cabins and occasional tents continued to provide temporary shelter throughout most of Bozeman’s Townsite Phase. Nonetheless, frame construction began to predominate relatively early, and existing log structures were often sheathed in horizontal clapboard or weatherboard siding, with some use of vertical board and battens. Commercial structures were provided with false fronts to resemble their frame-constructed neighbors. Bracketed cornices with a Victorian Italianate vernacular flavor, as seen in Spieth and Krug's first brewery (1867), were favored in false front facades, whereas gabled frame buildings showed a preference for Greek Revival. The hotel known as Guy House is an example of that tendency, and a residential equivalent is the Nelson Story house, built c. 1869. Although the building has been moved and altered, it is the best documented of the known residential structures which remain from Bozeman’s Townsite Phase. Both the two-story Guy House (later renamed the Northern Pacific) and the one-level Story house featured rectangular gable-ended plans, two corbeled brick chimneys situated at the ends, double-hung six-over-six windows, painted white horizontal clapboard or weatherboard siding, shallow-pitched gable roofs with axes parallel to the street, and one-story entry porticos with paneled entrances and sidelights. The top of the entry portico of Guy House doubled as a balcony and was painted with the name of the hotel. A rear addition to the Story house formed an overall L-shaped plan. The more self-consciously Greek Revival facade of Guy House is characteristically symmetrical, with central entrances at both levels flanked by two windows on either side, for a total of eight windows. The central entrance of the Story house, however, is off-center, and its two flanking shuttered windows are evenly spaced in spite of their lack of symmetry. Gothic Revival or "Carpenter Gothic" sawn ornament on the corner supports of the entry further mark the structure as a vernacular blend of divergent traditions.ix

John Bozeman's murder in 1867 sparked a general panic among settlers in Montana Territory. Newspapers widely reported that he had been killed by Blackfeet Indians although many suspected his traveling companion, Thomas Cover. Whoever the culprit was, his death led to the establishment of Fort Ellis, three miles east of Bozeman. The original buildings reportedly were constructed of logs, sod, and whipsawn lumber. George Flanders provided materials for the fort’s expansion in 1873 from his Bear Creek sawmill. The Fort Ellis buildings included a stockade built in 1868 and dismantled soon

- 12 - afterward. At its height, the fort accommodated five companies of one hundred soldiers each.x

In their travels through the Gallatin Valley in 1805-06, explorers Lewis and Clark had noted the positive attributes of the area for settlement. Among their comments were the observations that “the earth appears as though it would make good brick” and that “all the materials . . . for an establishment of . . . brick or stone . . . are immediately at the spot.”xi The availability of these materials facilitated construction of foundations and chimneys as well as a few brick commercial structures as early as the late 1860s. The Metropolitan Hotel, later called the Laclede Hotel, was among the first of these predominately Italianate Commercial brick blocks to be erected on Main Street. The offset entrance and two double windows featured arched transoms. The double entrances on three upper stories had segmental relieving arches with keystones, and opened onto a facade-width balustraded wooden balcony. A corbeled parapet was extended in height to accommodate the large letters of the hotel's name, accentuating the verticality of the facade. The Metropolitan had an affinity, in style and scale, with the neighboring false-fronted structures.xii

The “Cooper Block,” the greater portion of which still stands as the oldest surviving business block in Bozeman, dominated Main Street in the decade following its construction in 1872. The substantial quality of the building, with its eleven-bay facade (of which seven remain), suited it to the housing of Walter Cooper's Armory, among other businesses. An architect from St. Joseph, Missouri, designed the structure for Colonel Leander M. Black, owner of one of the businesses in the building, using an Italianate Commercial mode of Victorian vernacular. Black was the developer of Black's Addition, which had recently opened for settlement.xiii

In retrospect, it appears that many of the determined and enterprising early settlers never doubted that Bozeman would become a permanent settlement. Several among them had ample capital and/or adequate intermittent commercial success to weather the first few years of halting economic development. Agricultural manufacturing was established immediately, along with commercial concerns, which prospered with the help of government contracts associated with Fort Ellis. Additional settlers were attracted in the process of hosting survey parties temporarily headquartered at Fort Ellis, where West Point fashions and manners were approximated, frontier-style. The designation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872 brought the promise of renown to the region, bolstering the town's developers as they contended with setbacks associated with stabilizing the population of the gold camps, closing military forts along the Bozeman Road, and financial hardships of the economically depressed years of the 1870s.

Exploration of the region's resources during the Townsite Phase yielded discoveries of Rocky Canyon's construction-quality sandstone deposits and coke-producing coal preserves. At the same time, entrepreneurs harnessed the abundant water supplies for several lumber mills, flour mills, and irrigation projects.xiv

- 13 - In the social and cultural realm, efforts also began early with whatever resources were at hand. The Townsite Phase saw the building of a Methodist Episcopal Church in 1866- 1867, with subscriptions in the amount of $2,500. Prior to completion of the frame structure, services and Sunday School were held in the Masonic building (the Stafford and Rice log building, described above). It was common for early buildings to have multiple uses, and the new church was thereafter utilized as a school and a district courtroom. Interior plastering and furnishing was completed in the winter following the initial building effort.xv

The first school term was held in the rear of the Fitz log store in 1865-1866, the second term in a log residence on Main Street, and the third term in the Merravilles’ double log structure. By 1868, a tax of five mills provided public funding for education, which had previously depended on parental contributions. W. J. Beall constructed the schoolhouse at a cost of $500. The structure was in use only for upper grades by 1873, and lower grades were conducted once more in a log structure, a house on Babcock Street near Black Avenue. It took several more years before the first brick schoolhouse was built. Public schools also competed with private ones. For instance, in 1872, Rev. Lyman B. Crittendon and his daughter, Mary, rented space in the Good Templar Hall for the Bozeman Academy.xvi

In addition to schools, other institutions enhanced Bozeman’s social and cultural realm. By 1872, a “Young Men's Library Association” utilized space in the upper level of Alward's drug store. The earliest newspaper, the Pick and Plow, began publication on December 31, 1869, financed by proceeds from a Christmas Eve ball. It continued in print for eighteen months. The Avant Courier fared better, publishing from September 1871 until it merged with the Gallatin County Republican in 1904 to become the Bozeman Courier.xvii

A telegraph line was installed in 1871 between Bozeman and Helena, and the town’s first bank, the First National Bank of Bozeman, was established in August 1872. Fraternal organizations chartered during the Townsite Phase include the Gallatin Lodge No.6, H. F. & A. M. (1866); Bozeman Lodge No.18, A. F & A. M. (1872); and Western Star Lodge No.4, Independent Order of Odd Fellows (1872).xviii

An engraving of Bozeman in 1872 shows a cluster of simple gabled structures along Main Street with a few two-story buildings, most of which have false fronts. Some of these commercial buildings have flat or shed roofs, but most are gabled behind their false facades. A common feature is a balcony above the front entrance. The dwellings are, without exception, one-story, single-bay gabled structures. Some are log, but most appear to be frame or covered with wood siding. One or two interior chimneys rise from most of the roofs. Saltbox or cross-gabled additions appear on a few of the homes. The Cooper Block is not present, but the Laclede Hotel is prominent, marked by a high-flying flag.xix

- 14 - Village Phase (1873-1883)

The years of early settlement, during which Bozeman had grown to a town of approximately 800 residents, were followed by a decade of continued growth and rising expectations. The gains represented by the Cooper Block on Main Street were difficult to live up to during the depressed 1870s. The aggressive actions of the Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition, however, revealed a group of entrepreneurs who were not about to see the promise of Bozeman wither away. With the defeat of regional Indian tribes and the subsequent reopening of travel routes in the late 1870s, attention turned once more to Main Street. Aspirations focused on the transcontinental Northern Pacific Railroad and its routing through Bozeman.xx

In the interim of the 1870s, religious and educational institutions made modest gains. A new brick Methodist Episcopal Church, at the corner of Olive and Willson, was built in 1873. The Presbyterians purchased Good Templar Hall, which served the congregation until construction of a decorative Carpenter Gothic church in 1879. The Episcopalians also built a small church c. 1875, later replaced by St. James Episcopal Church in 1890- 1891. The outgrown public school building was replaced in 1877 by a brick schoolhouse, designed by W. J. Beall and constructed under the supervision of Colonel Chesnut. Referred to for many years as the West Side School, the structure was the first of three important public buildings constructed during the later years of the Village Phase. The expenditure of $15,000 for the schoolhouse represented nearly one-third of the total improvements and building costs for 1879. A detailed description of the "Graded School Building" appeared in the 1879 Almanac, and the accompanying illustration showed the Italian Villa-like structure with arched windows and a tower adorned with a concave mansard roof borrowed from Second Empire architecture.xxi

The remaining two public buildings of the caliber of the West Side School were the East Side School (1883) and the County Courthouse (1880), both designed by Byron Vreeland in association with Herman Kemna. Vreeland's designs both followed Second Empire form in utilizing the straight-sided mansard roof, prominent cornice, and the basic plan of a symmetrical square block with a central pavilion projecting to the front. The pavilion on the courthouse departed from Second Empire by projecting skyward in a square tower with a domical roof topped by an elongated flagpole-finial. Vreeland took his eclecticism further in the East Side School, where the pavilion became a projecting gable decorated in its gable end with geometrical motifs strongly resembling Vreeland's Moorish Revival ornament on Smith's Palace Saloon (1882) on Main Street.xxii

Noteworthy commercial buildings of this phase include the Carpenter Gothic boardinghouse, Frazier House (1881), which followed residential structures stylistically; Eastman House, a hotel which was originally built as a residence; and several brick blocks on Main Street. The above-mentioned Palace Saloon by Vreeland still remains from this 1880-1883 building spurt, which also included the Tivoli Saloon (no longer standing), Achilles Lamme's three brick business blocks, the Avant Courier building (partially altered), the Masonic Lodge (partially altered), and a brick block for Spieth & Krug Bozeman Brewery (replacing a frame structure). The prevalent vernacular Victorian

- 15 - Commercial mode of building shows a range, in these buildings, from Ruskinian Gothic with Moorish elements (Palace Saloon) to Italianate (Spieth & Krug) to eclectic combinations which defy even these terminological approximations. The structures as a group may be described as attached, two-story, symmetrical blocks with prominent cornices and articulated window heads, borrowing from several Revival styles, predominantly Italianate. Those which remain standing constitute essential elements of Bozeman's historic commercial architectural resources.

Generic industrial/corporate buildings constructed in this period include two frame structures which were later replaced by brick buildings. The 1882 Story Mill was a large gabled building with a prominent clerestory. The structure is believed to have been among those which burned at the turn of the century. The second building in this category was the Northern Pacific depot which, for all the glory associated with the arrival of the railroad, was a modest frame structure. It was described as “squat, squalid and stuffy” on the occasion of its replacement in 1891 by a hipped one-story, horizontal central block with a projecting side wing, both bays having deep overhanging eaves.xxiii

In residential architecture, some vernacular house forms, such as the log cabin, persisted. The McDonald I-house on South Tracy, built ca.1872-1873, represents a regional form transplanted from the mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states. One of the oldest existing residences in Bozeman, the structure is just one room deep. Its symmetrical design is gable-ended with a central interior brick chimney. The walls are sheathed in drop-lap siding with corner boards. The lack of even a single two-story residence on the 1872 birds-eye view of Bozeman suggests that this house was one of the first two-story homes to be built.

The Upright-and-Wing farmhouse form appeared in the early 1870s as well and these, unlike the log cabin or I-house, were often dressed up in Carpenter Gothic ornamentation such as rooftop cresting and finials, balustraded entries, and polygonal bays with paneled window aprons. Variations of these structures include the W. W. Alderson house (1873), the Sam Lewis frame house at 308 South Bozeman Avenue (later veneered in brick), and the Walter Cooper home.

In addition to the dressed-up Upright-and-Wing dwelling, the symmetrical one-and-one- half or two-story central cross-gabled “Gothic Cottage” house form was an important Village Phase manifestation of the Carpenter Gothic builders’ tradition. Although few were built in the 1870s, several appeared from 1880-1883, only to fall from favor almost immediately thereafter. Some excellent surviving examples of the simple but jewel-like Gothic Cottage dwelling from this period include the J. V. Hinchman house (401 South Willson Avenue, 1883), the George Nichols house (301 South Black Avenue, 1880), and the W. J. Brandenburg house (122 West Lamme Street, 1883). Brandenburg was a builder who may be responsible for the others as well as his own house, which, although its facade reads as a central cross-gabled Gothic Cottage, is actually an Upright-and- Wing plan. The hand-sawn and carved ornament of the Brandenburg house is still in excellent condition.

- 16 - Variations on these standard Carpenter Gothic structures include the above-mentioned Frazier house (1881), with its multiple gables rising from two gable-ended houses with triple-gable facades placed together to take full advantage of its corner orientation. Another variation is the Daniel Rouse home, a brick version of the central cross-gabled frame structures described above. This house, though somewhat altered, still stands at 506 East Babcock. Without exception, these examples of the Gothic Cottage and its variations are located on corner lots, reflecting their early placement and their relative value as objects of community admiration.

Bozeman achieved new status in 1883 with the completion of the Northern Pacific transcontinental route as well as the city's triumphant incorporation. These events brought about a new approach to residential building among the city's wealthy class. Perhaps anticipating a more cosmopolitan life following the arrival of the railroad, those with adequate financial resources sought residential property on the expansive Central Avenue, where their social status could be displayed in more current architectural taste. An early example is Matt Alderson’s large residence (1882), later the Chisholm home, a two-story, three-bay brick house with a bracketed, straight-sided mansard roof and Revival details, including Italianate and Classical. This new location along Central Avenue, at the close of the Village Phase, began a tradition which would determine, in part, the residential character of the Civic Phase in Bozeman. Despite this trend, some of Bozeman’s financially successful families chose sites for grand homes closer to Main Street or to their business enterprises. These included the 1882 Tracy residence on Mendenhall Street; the J. H. Taylor residence, which became Eastman House; the 1887 Nelson Story “mansion” on Main Street; and the 1895 Lehrkind “mansion” on North Wallace Avenue.

Civic Phase (1884-1912)

Bozeman’s new status as an incorporated city brought numerous immediate efforts at civic refinement, which transformed the community as it moved toward economic and demographic stabilization. Montana's attainment of statehood in 1889 and Bozeman’s own bid for the state capital in the early 1890s further stimulated growth. The city organized a fire department, purchased a 1,377-volume library, and, by 1890, constructed a city hall that housed these and other services, including an opera house auditorium. Rail connections bolstered expectations of prosperity among merchants and manufacturers, providing access to markets in Butte and Anaconda as well as Montana's military installations. A power plant was installed at the old McAdow mill ca. 1886- 1887, leading to electric street lighting by 1891 and electric streetcar service the following year. In 1898, the city purchased the existing waterworks, which included twenty-two miles of water mains by 1908. Local interests resumed the Minneapolis- owned Bozeman Light and Railroad Company, which had begun as a locally-owned effort in the 1880s. The Bozeman and Butte Short Line connected nearby coke operations to the smelters where the coke was needed, and after a prolonged strike of coal miners in 1886, Bozeman interests bought out the unpopular Northern Pacific Coal Company, only to transfer ownership to a subsidiary of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in 1904.

- 17 - Telephone service was available from 1884 to 1889, and then continuously from 1896 on. The Gallatin Valley Electric Railway incorporated in 1908 and within a year, Bozeman offered the state's only interurban service. New activity in the brewing, lumber, and flour mill industries, as well as the establishment of a federal fish hatchery, contributed to economic stability.xxiv

The population of the city and the county made significant gains, aided by the growth of rural towns and communities, and nearby company towns such as Chestnut, Storrs and Trident. The Manhattan Malting Company and the West Gallatin Irrigation Company stimulated rural population growth in 1891 with the introduction of Dutch farmers to Gallatin County. The Holland Settlement raised barley crops for the company through 1916. As Fort Ellis and other military markets dried up, Bozeman merchants depended increasingly on the farm population for a market for goods and services, particularly agricultural implements which were sold by five dealers in 1910-1911. During the Civic Phase, the mechanization of farming led to a new balance for Bozeman's economy, favoring agricultural products, farm machinery supply, and banking interests. Not all the farmers were satisfied with the situation, however, as demonstrated by the organization of the “Gallatin County Farmer's Alliance” in 1904. This group was associated with the American Society of Equity, a forerunner of the radical Nonpartisan League. By 1908, the Alliance was marketing its own crops and operating two elevators (one in Bozeman and the other in Belgrade) as well as an office and a warehouse. This effort benefited its farmer members apparently without affecting the impressive prosperity of the banking interests, who were said not even to have felt the Panic of 1907.xxv

The financial sector of Bozeman's economy made an impact on building activity as well, with the establishment of the Pioneer Building and Loan in 1888. The entrepreneurs, bankers, realtors, and other businessmen associated with this corporation established their enterprise at an opportune time for capitalizing on inexpensive planed lumber, shipped by rail. These developments, however spelled the decline of local interests, such as George Flander's planing mill and sash factory at Middle Creek, an operation which had produced 10,000 board feet of lumber and 10,000 shingles per day for many years. The combined reduction of material costs and availability of credit enabled boosters to announce in 1908, “No other city in the northwest can boast so large a proportion of homes owned by their occupants as Bozeman.”xxvi

Two local firms produced a variety of building materials. The Story Iron Works employed seven workers in 1908. The Bozeman Manufacturing Company, with fifteen workers that year, advertised “bed-springs, showcases, store fronts, and all kinds of house furnishings: also doors, sash and window frames . . . Portable Houses . . .Glass Work of All Kinds - Structural Steel and Iron.” E. E. Machemer was listed variously as manager and proprietor.xxvii

The need for approval of credit applications for home ownership through Pioneer Building and Loan would amount to a screening process to ensure, to some degree, that Bozeman attracted only a certain type of population. The importance of the image of Bozeman as a stable, staid city was indicated by a pronouncement in 1908 that “There are

- 18 - few millionaires in Gallatin County, and fewer paupers, and that disorderly element that is so conspicuous a feature of some Western communities is lacking here.”xxviii

Bozeman's residential architecture of the Civic Phase grew increasingly staid and respectable as well. This was due, in part, to the cultivation of that image by the town's promoters, and also in part to a standardizing trend associated with such institutions as the Pioneer Building and Loan, which continued to operate until 1958. Screening of credit applications was accompanied by screening of building plans. Each had to be approved and hence, to some degree, regulated.

City boosters had allies among reformers in Bozeman, as elsewhere, although the alliance appears to have taken many years—and some compromising—to develop in Bozeman. The organization of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in 1884, as well as the establishment of additional religious denominations, may be a measure of intensified reform efforts attending the city's incorporation. By 1885, the Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Episcopal denominations were joined by the Baptist, Catholic, and Methodist Episcopal Church South. Although the Baptist and Catholic churches were located near Main Street or South Willson Avenue, the Methodist Episcopal Church South was constructed on Ingersoll (later renamed Church Street), the route to the Northern Pacific Depot and a fashionable street at the time. The proximity of this church and the East Side School to Chinatown and the Red Light District along Mendenhall Street may have helped fuel later reform efforts of religious and educational leaders.

Despite these efforts, Chinese laundries remained a fixture in Bozeman for decades. There were three such businesses identified in both the 1910-11 and 1922 Polk directories. One, the Loy Laundry started by Sam Loy, first appeared in 1910 at 102 North Black Avenue. It then moved to 105 South Willson Avenue where it remained in business at least through 1950.xxix

By 1906, the City Commission followed the lead of municipal reformers in Butte and Helena and addressed the issue of law enforcement burdens associated with Bozeman’s sixteen saloons. There was disagreement about whether to regulate the “evil” by restriction to a quota or by limiting saloons to a concentrated section of the downtown business district. Despite the argument over methods, the national climate favoring social reform had clearly begun to affect Bozeman. Civic leaders concluded, twenty-two years after organization of the local chapter of the WCTU, that “Legislative bodies as well as municipal councils everywhere recognize the saloon as an evil—an irrepressible evil, perhaps, but an evil, nevertheless, existing only by indulgence or sufferance, to be regulated, restricted, or, in aggravated cases, to be suppressed by law or city ordinance.”xxx

A similar compromise with worldliness may be observed by comparing Bozeman’s church architecture of the late 1870s and early 1880s with that of the following two decades. The Gothic piety of the 1879 Presbyterian Church (where WCTU meetings were held on alternate Thursday afternoons) and the simple, almost austere architectural forms of the frame Holy Rosary Catholic Church and the brick Methodist Episcopal

- 19 - Church South, contrast sharply with the grander styles of St. James Episcopal (1890- 1891) and the second Holy Rosary Catholic Church (1907-1908). St. James was designed by George Hancock, the architect from Fargo, North Dakota, who designed the Bozeman Hotel. Built of grey sandstone quarried from Rocky Canyon, the church exemplifies the late nineteenth century phase of Gothic Revival known as Victorian Gothic. It features a tall spire, broad, steeply-pitched roof, and rough textured surfaces. The church is still standing at 5 West O1ive. Holy Rosary Church was constructed of Hebron granite brick with sandstone sills, slate roof, and Munich stained glass. The Romanesque Revival style is a twentieth century Late Victorian church building mode. The church still stands at 220 West Main, although its original facade is obscured by an enclosed entrance vestibule.

After Montana achieved statehood in 1889, its new status seemed to provide an impetus to building of every variety. Residual vernacular forms or builders' traditions quickly fell out of favor in house and church construction, as did earlier versions of Victorian commercial architecture such as Italianate, and civic or residential styles such as Italian Villa or Second Empire. In this way, examples of these buildings from the 1880s were likely to become one-of-a-kind relics of a past age, almost overnight. There are few traces of the grand Nelson Story Second Empire mansion (once located on Main Street), the Tracy house (once on Mendenhall Street), the East Side and West Side schools, the Vreeland Courthouse, and the “Castle” (once located on North Church Avenue). The scaled-down Lycan house on Lamme Street, with its mansard roof, remains as a builder's modest tribute to Second Empire. In a similar way, the Matt Alderson-Chisholm house salutes this period, but little else remains of these styles.

Instead of the formal Second Empire, Italianate Commercial, and Italian Villa styles, Bozeman began to embrace the picturesque effects of Queen Anne, eventually encompassing Classical and Colonial Revival elements. Victorian Commercial, Queen Anne Commercial, and Ruskinian Gothic flourished on Main Street. Richardsonian Romanesque was chosen for the City High School, designed by George Hancock in 1892. (The school was later called the West Side School, not to be confused with the earlier school by that name. Later still, it was called Irving School, not to be confused with the WPA/Fred Willson Irving School.) Because of the eclectic nature of Queen Anne, the other Victorian styles blended well in the profusion of High and Late Victorian. So also did the proto-modern Richardsonian high school building, which closely resembled Henry Hobson Richardson's Allegheny County Courthouse.

Eclecticism of form, as seen in the Bozeman City Hall and Opera House (designed by Byron Vreeland in 1890), had its counterpart in eclecticism of function, as this description demonstrates:

The city hall, built two years ago, is one of the finest edifices of its kind in the state. It is a two story brick building and cost the city $40,000. On the first floor is the council chamber, a room containing apparatus of the fire department, and office of the Street Railway and Electric Light Company. On the second floor, in front, are the Bozeman free library and several

- 20 - private offices; in the rear is the opera house, a gem in its way, and having a seating capacity of about 900.

Architecturally, the City Hall and Opera House gave its nod to Second Empire with its straight-sided mansard roof, square plan, and central projecting pavilion. The tower roof, however, was pyramidal, and the overall treatment of the facade and other brick surfaces was asymmetrical. Windows were placed singly or grouped in pairs or triple bands. Flat, segmental, and round arches appeared randomly. A miniature turret rose at the corner above the roof line, where gables and tall chimneys rose along with the square tower. The centrally placed double entrance had an upper arched light of rich colored and leaded glass.

In the same spirit, several brick business blocks on Main Street showed a departure from earlier designs. Asymmetrical and dynamic, these structures, such as the Tracy/Barnett building (1889-1890) and the I.O.O.F. Hall (1891) proudly displayed facades with irregular parapets, which created perspective illusions, and such embellishments as an onion dome (Tracy/Barnett) or rusticated stone details and accents. Both of these buildings still stand, although in somewhat altered form.

The City Hall and Opera House, demolished in the 1970s, and its companion, the Tilton Building (1889), also demolished, occupied the southwest and northeast corners respectively of the intersection of Rouse Avenue and Main Street, the historic heart of Bozeman. In 1891, architect George Hancock designed the Bozeman Hotel to occupy a third corner (northwest) of that intersection. Using a Victorian Commercial style, the fortress-like structure appears larger than its four stories, and even larger than its five story corner tower, which was originally designed to be capped with a pyramidal roof . With its siting, scale, and grandeur, the hotel achieves a dynamism which its smaller neighbors approximate through illusionistic ornament.

In residential architecture, Queen Anne and related styles, such as Eastlake, displayed a similar exuberance to that of commercial architecture. The Eastlake-ornamented brick home of George Flanders on South Grand Avenue (1888), and the newly-veneered Sam Lewis home on South Bozeman, both displayed a vigor not unlike Main Street's newer 1890s designs. Yet, even when constructed of brick, as in the William A. Tudor Queen Anne Cottage (613 South Willson Avenue) or the Queen Anne Bozeman Sanitarium (c. 1896, no longer standing), the proud, noisy quality, which was so appealing on Main Street, seemed to be tempered by domesticity. Symbolic associations identified with the Carpenter Gothic mode were not so much outgrown as reborn in such dwellings as the Niles/Langohr Queen Anne Cottage. The obligatory gable-fronted projecting bay, with shingled gable end and returning eaves, suggests interior intimate family activities, centered around the central window with its colored glass transom. The turned posts and brackets on the entry porch are also classic Queen Anne, yet modesty in ornament, in the context of the overall pleasing appearance of the house, seems almost a virtue. The 1889 William A. Tudor house is a less demure brick version of the Queen Anne Cottage. Its carved wood brackets adorning the windows at the faceted corners of the projecting front

- 21 - bay still seem to articulate interior domestic space, but less literally than the Niles/Langhor house.

Although the Queen Anne Cottage began to appear along Bozeman's residential avenues and to influence ornamentation of pre-existing houses, a few larger residences were built which are perhaps closer to quintessential Queen Anne, using polygonal bays and turrets, colored and leaded glass, turned posts and balustrades, and multiple roof lines. The 1896 “Lehrkind Mansion,” home of German brewer Julius Lehrkind, exemplifies the brick version of this style. Its location near the family brewery business provided it with an estate-like setting where trees and shrubbery enhanced the picturesque nature of the Queen Anne design elements. The Mendenhall home (521 South Willson Avenue) is a frame variation more oriented to the city street. Built in 1886 from a pattern book design, the dwelling displays a profusion of appliquéd sunbursts, scroll brackets, variegated shingles, and cut-out designs. Porches, balconies, polygonal bays, and turrets contribute to the asymmetrical composition.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Bozeman, several large Victorian homes were built that did not typify Queen Anne architecture. These frame or brick structures strove in their design for a restrained stateliness that would have been compromised by the excessive ornament of Queen Anne. Many of these, located on South Willson, South Grand and South Third avenues, began with the “Classic Box” form (a two-story square block with pyramidal roof) and then varied that symmetrical plan with elements like two-story projecting square bays (C. Kenyon house, 204 South Third Avenue, 1900; and Svorkmoe house, 621 South Grand Avenue, 1911) or gambreled dormers (Roecher house, 319 South Third Avenue, 1900). Features of the more flamboyant Queen Anne style, such as round towers or bays, were admissible after the turn of the century if tempered by Colonial Revival detailing (John Kopp/W. A. Hall house, 502 South Grand Avenue, 1903; E. W. King house, 725 South Willson Avenue, 1906-1907). In the case of the Ketterer residence (35 North Grand Avenue, 1901), Colonial Revival elements dominate but Queen Anne influence is irrepressible, showing up in the form of fish scale shingles, carved wooden brackets, and a single leaded glass window. The Davidson house (613 South Willson Avenue, 1907), designed by architect C. S. Haire, attains its mark of individuality with Palladian windows and Gothic Revival details. The adaptability of the “Classic Box” is well demonstrated by this group of individualistic residences which, to be accurate, must be said to include even the Lehrkind Mansion, the “quintessential Queen Anne.” In fact, the Lehrkind Mansion evolved in stages from the simpler form.

Other forms taken by the stately architecture of Bozeman's prestigious neighborhoods are perhaps best described as “mannerist” in their quest for individuality. Architect-designed homes, such as the Davidson house, could be viewed as part of this group as well. Somewhat anomalous among the builders' traditions of Bozeman, residences such as the Davidson house (C. S. Haire, architect) and the Martin house (419 South Grand, 1892, George Hancock, architect), represent a pinnacle of “cultivated taste” for their respective eras. The Martin house was ironically labeled “A Typical Bozeman Home” in an illustrated promotional publication of the era.xxxi Nothing could be further from the truth;

- 22 - the large, impressive two-and-one-half story house, with its massive corbeled chimneys and unusual wood frieze, is typical only of Bozeman's wealthier citizens' penchant for grandeur.

The General Willson home (504 South Willson Avenue, 1886) and the Edwin B. Lamme Home (501 South Grand Avenue, 1893) represent early frame examples of this individualistic grandeur. What might have been simply an imposing large home for a dignified town father like General Willson became instead an architectural statement of sweeping elegance with the integration into the design of a two-story, round-ended wing. The Lamme house achieves its eccentricity through a variety of roof planes, from a steep gable roof with axis parallel to the street, to two differently sloped, pediment-like front- facing gables, and finally an engaged conical cap over a miniature balcony which protrudes from the front slope of the principal roof. Both the balcony and its roof appear to melt into the larger roof. Flared eaves further accentuate the roof themes, as does an extended porch roof which becomes an almost off-handed porte-cochere.

Two other highly individualistic residences still existing on South Third Avenue are the Benepe house at 201 South Third (1883) and the second William A. Tudor house at 805 South Third (1904). These may be contrasted as opposite approaches to a similar goal of uniqueness. The original two-story box-like form of the Benepe house is thoroughly disguised or, more accurately, transformed by a series of modifications and ornamental refurbishings. The lure of Queen Anne and Eastlake went unresisted as multiple roof lines, leaded glass, and fancy woodwork created whole new surfaces, windows and porches in profuse eclectic display. The Third Avenue Tudor home, in contrast, achieved its decorative individuality by virtue of a carefully composed original plan which could be compromised only by alterations such as those to which the Benepe house owes its effectiveness. This house shares eclecticism and complexity with the Benepe house, but draws from Eastern Stick style (its half-timbered effect and angular symmetry), and from Arts and Crafts style (its shed dormers and window detailing). The integrated design accommodates with dignity such distinctive features as a projecting second-level sleeping porch over a front entry, but it still makes the desired statement of eccentricity.

The extensive variety of designs offered by pattern books or builders’ catalogues were ideal for such expressions of “character.” These publications had been in circulation since 1797 (The Country Builder's Assistant), and they increased in popularity in the mid- nineteenth century when A. J. Downing and A. J. Davis popularized (with a missionary zeal) Gothic Revival-derived house design. Pattern books came into extensive use in Bozeman after Carpenter Gothic, Second Empire, and Eastlake had run their course. Queen Anne remained as a stylistic component in many pattern book designs appearing in Bozeman, and one known example exists (the Mendenhall house, 521 South Willson Avenue, described above) of an early pattern book design which is strictly Queen Anne. The E. W. King house exemplifies the pattern book design as a tour de force of stylistic integration (Queen Anne and Colonial Revival) and displays such distinctive materials as curved, leaded, and etched glass, terra cotta cable moldings, and turned wood balustrades and columns. Often the architectural elements were ordered directly from a manufacturer,

- 23 - and such structures were sometimes sold as a “package deal” and shipped in pieces to the customer by rail.

The T. Byron Story house (811 South Willson Avenue, 1910) is another residence which corresponds in design to styles which were popular in pattern books. Recalling resort architecture in its eclecticism and monumental scale, the structure combines characteristics of Shingle, Stick, and Queen Anne styles. Classical and medieval references are juxtaposed in an eclectic construction of brick, stone, and shingles, embellished with curved bays, a porte-cochere, and broad gables with half-timber effect. Attributed to architect C. S. Haire, the home was constructed by Bozeman contractor John Scahil1. Even if it is not an adaptation of a pattern book design, the house is stylistically related to that genre.

At the same time that the wealthy residents of Bozeman were finding pattern book designs helpful in expressing cosmopolitan values and individualistic statements of independence and “character,” the less socially and economically privileged homeowners, and the speculation builders who served them, found a different value in pattern book designs. Simple floor plans that addressed basic domestic concerns such as privacy, economy, comfort, and practicality, were available from several different companies. A house plan book, published in 1903 by the Radford Architectural Company of Riverside, Illinois, presented one hundred perspective views and floor plans of “low and medium priced houses.” These plans were billed as “original, practical and attractive house designs, such as seventy-five to ninety percent of the people today wish to build.” Prestige and quality were stressed in that each plan was “designed by a licensed architect who stands at the head of his profession in this particular class of work.” Economy, however, was the principal selling point, as evidenced by claims that “we will give you the most for your money; besides, every bit of space has been utilized to the best advantage.”xxxii

Mass production of these plans and specifications, at an average price of five dollars per set, represented an outright assault on vernacular or traditional dwelling types for which builders did not need such plans. New screening of building plans, however, demanded by building and loan companies and insurance companies, contributed to the demise of traditional house forms in Bozeman and in towns and cities across the nation. As residential Bozeman began to grow toward the college, such structures became the dominant features of avenues to the south and southwest of downtown. The north side also became the site of many of these homes, which, twenty years later, would relinquish their dominance to another popular house-type, the "California bungalow." Good examples of these modest homes, with plans likely from a pattern book, are found primarily in Bozeman’s southern neighborhoods, such as the Cooper Park Historic District.

Although claims of architectural superiority were, in many cases, not borne out by the designs themselves, it is nonetheless common in Bozeman that residences of the pattern book type are well-preserved and interesting components of their neighborhood. Stylistic references may be vague or modified beyond recognition, but the importance placed upon

- 24 - distinguishing these dwellings from traditional forms resulted in a certain variety associated with a broad pool of architectural features. The underlying standardization - of construction methods, floor plans, scale, proportion, materials and concept - is masked by genuine attempts at individualization, achieved by variation of rooflines, window treatment, porches, dormers, balconies and even, in some cases, massing. Often associated with early suburban development, these houses are especially appropriate to the garden-like setting of Bozeman's residential neighborhoods.

In general, Classical, Georgian, and Colonial references, particularly in wood trim, took the place of Queen Anne turned posts, balustrades, brackets, aprons, and valances. The shift was even more marked, however, among public and commercial buildings. The brick County High School (404 West Main Street, 1902) displayed pediment-like gables and Palladian detailing on an imposing symmetrical facade. The Carnegie Library building (35 North Bozeman Avenue, 1902-1903) was designed by Helena architect C. S. Haire in one of the styles common to the library buildings funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The brick and sandstone structure features a Greek cross plan and a pedimented entrance with Doric columns. The building was used as a library until 1981 and now houses private offices. On Main Street, the success of local bankers was as evident as it was on South Willson Avenue where several bankers built grand homes during the Civic Phase. The National Bank of Gallatin Valley (1 West Main, 1906), constructed of cast stone, exemplified the early twentieth century version of Classical Revival through the use of fluted columns, a paneled frieze, and rusticated cast stone; Egyptian Revival is also in evidence in details such as the swelling of the columns. The Gallatin State Bank (2 West Main, 1908-1909) displayed similar Classical elements, notably a corner entrance flanked by Ionic columns. Other commercial buildings of the early twentieth century were ornamented with some Classical detailing, such as the colonnaded frieze of the Golden Rule Store (11 West Main Street, 1906) and the prominent Corinthian columns of the Gem Theatre (c. 1909, no longer standing).

Bozeman's selection as the site for Montana’s land grant college influenced the city's economic and social development in significant and complex ways. In the architecture, however, it appears that the influence is, to some degree, reversed. The new agricultural college may have reflected local architectural practices more than it influenced the built environment of Bozeman. In the early years, for instance, the college was dependent on the use of local commercial buildings, just as the early Bozeman schools had been. The first structure to be built on campus, the Extension Building (1894) was a simple brick, two-and-one-half story building with a clipped gable roof, recalling Gothic Revival domestic structures such as Walter Cooper's Main Street home (no longer standing) or Sam Lewis' twin rental houses on South Tracy Avenue.

The dominant building for many years was Main Hall (now known as Montana Hall, 1896), designed by European-trained Helena architect John C. Paulsen and constructed by Charles Suiter. Although this Victorian Gothic structure has no counterpart in Bozeman, except in the later Fisher residence (South Willson Avenue, no longer standing, 1908), the existence of numerous Gothic Revival buildings in Bozeman may have influenced Paulsen's choice, either directly or indirectly through local board

- 25 - members. Paulsen's designs were known to include other likely choices, such as Neo- Classicism or Beaux Arts Classicism, but Gothic Revival designs were perhaps his best. The influence of local Masonic interests is seen in the integration of Masonic symbols into the design of the entrance; in addition, the Masonic Grand Lodge of Montana conducted the ceremonies for the laying of the cornerstone on October 21, 1896.

Functional buildings were given little attention in terms of design, a practice seen both locally and at the land grant college. This is reflected in the utilitarian nature of early campus buildings such as the drill hall, shop building, dairy building (1901), heating plant (1903), dairy barn (1906), and greenhouses. The Chemical Building, which burned in 1916, bore no resemblance to Bozeman's architecture and looked somewhat like a symmetrical version of the Italian Villa style, perhaps with military connotations. With the construction of the Agriculture building (1907-1908, now known as Linfield Hall), the influence of Bozeman's civic architecture, in particular Longfellow School and Gallatin County High School, is evident. Yet the Agriculture College would remain dependent for many years on its utilitarian frame and even log structures. In this it followed the same pattern as the county schools, which included not only newer, grander buildings, but also the simple one-room log and frame schoolhouses.

Progressive Phase (1913-1929)

The ‘Progressivism’ . . . that broader impulse toward criticism and change that was everywhere so conspicuous after 1900, when the already forceful stream of agrarian discontent was enlarged and redirected by the growing enthusiasm of middle-class people for social and economic reform.xxxiii

While the Progressive Phase in Bozeman and Gallatin County history was a period of continued growth, more importantly it was a period of transformation. In industry, the pattern of agricultural manufacturing and productive operations related to extractive activity had been established at the outset of the Townsite Phase with flour and lumber mills. In the Progressive Phase, however, a number of factors combined to influence shifts in fortunes and directions in the field of industrial production. Among those factors were pressures from the resident land grant college and its research arm, the experiment stations. The Montana Agricultural Experiment Station had counseled changes in agricultural practices that favored increased production of hay accompanied by livestock raising. By 1913, efforts were underway to reap the benefits of this economic advice. Charles L. Anceny, son of cattleman Charles Anceny of the Manhattan area, sought eastern capital to help expand his livestock operation to 120,000 acres. The business was incorporated in 1929 as the Flying D Ranges. The gradual invasion of irrigated areas in the county accompanied Anceny's expansion and a concurrent general rise in the livestock industry.xxxiv

After the Jerome B. Rice Seed Company of Detroit conducted soil tests in 1911, farmers planted 17,000 acres of peas in the valley in 1913. Gallatin County subsequently was able to supply four seed companies, stimulate incorporation of the Bozeman Canning Company in 1917, and support the operation of a cannery known as Pictsweet, Inc. after

- 26 - 1940; the latter remained in operation until 1958. Bozeman's reputation as the “Sweet Pea City” grew out of this period as boosters capitalized on the picturesque aspects of this economic development.

Political factors on the national, state, and local levels also influenced transformations in the economic base for both Bozeman and Gallatin County. The homestead boom prior to World War I placed Bozeman in an advantageous position as an established supply center, but it also caused a shift of political power as politically progressive, sometimes even radical, Scandinavian and German settlers established farms in the eastern part of the state. Social unrest, however, marred the prosperity as the Montana Council of Defense fueled wartime hysteria with passage of the Montana Sedition Act which, according to historians Michael P. Malone and Richard B. Roeder, “became the model for the notorious federal Sedition Law of May 1918, a law which was widely used to stifle criticism of the war and which many authorities consider the most sweeping violation of civil liberties in modern American history.”xxxv

One consequence of the political shift was the passage in 1916 of a state dry law, to take effect at the end of 1918. This led to the demise of the Manhattan Malting Company. The need for grain during World War I, however, eased the transition from malting barley to wheat and caused general prosperity for a short time as market prices reflected wartime need for agricultural products. Another casualty of Prohibition was the Bozeman brewery, operated by Julius Lehrkind. When Montana went dry, it was converted into a soft drink plant. The Bozeman Bottling Works continued operations at 802 North Wallace through 1970.xxxvi

With the combined disasters of a postwar drop in market prices, a serious drought, and the devastating influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, fortunes took a tragic turn for many. Drought conditions prevailed throughout the 1920s. The State Department of Agriculture and Publicity, under Governor Stewart, joined with railroad companies to solicit non- resident investors in an effort to revive the injured economy. Despite this, the state lost an estimated 60,000 people between 1921 and 1925.xxxvii

Gallatin County fared reasonably well in comparison with other agricultural counties, particularly those in the newly settled eastern portion of the state. The national conditions, however, of low market prices, agricultural depression, and subsequent consolidation of land and wealth, occurred to some degree in Gallatin County as well. During this time, the Agricultural College worked with the state to rescue the economy through investment of outside capital. The passage of the Smith-Lever Cooperative Extension Act of 1914 opened the way for federal appropriations to be funneled through the land grant colleges, under the joint supervision and control of the Department of Agriculture and the colleges.

For Gallatin County, this meant the intensified application of the Land Grant College Association's philosophy of “progressivism” which had been taking shape throughout the early years of the twentieth century. The essence of that philosophy was that the farmer who utilized scientific methods (i.e. mechanization, efficiency, and capital-intensive

- 27 - production techniques) was the deserving heir to the “mossback” farmer's “mismanaged” farm. This philosophy, which favored streamlining both farm management and banking practices insufficient for the needs of smaller farmers, took political form in the American Farm Bureau Federation. Access to federal, state, and county funding placed the Agricultural College and the Farm Bureau together in a powerful alliance in opposition to other farm organizations such as the Farmers Union, which took a more liberal political position. It also drew some support from the radical Nonpartisan League.xxxviii

Although the Agricultural College suffered from economic setbacks, such as reduced state appropriations in 1923 when eleven faculty members were sacrificed, this period was nonetheless one of increasing power and influence for the institution in the state and the community. An alliance with community leaders who shared an appreciation of progressive philosophy resulted in the organization of the Rotary Club, which in 1921 spearheaded a movement to adopt the Commission-Manager form of city government. A debt of $473,002.02 spurred the leaders to secure for Bozeman the distinction of being the first city in Montana to adopt the new, although essentially conservative, form of government. The promise of greater efficiency was fulfilled, at least in the first few years, as the same general group of officials served out terms during which the debt was substantially reduced.xxxix

The Bozeman Chamber of Commerce took an aggressive approach in this period as well. It recognized the commercial potential of Yellowstone National Park tourism several years before the State Department of Agriculture and Publicity sought to increase tourism through its nationally-distributed promotional publications. The Bozeman Chamber pressed to increase access to the park through the west entrance. In 1914, with the help of other boosters, the Chamber won approval of the Park Superintendent and the Secretary of the Interior for the use of automobiles within the park. The resulting increased use of the west entrance had a significant effect on the face of Bozeman throughout the Progressive Phase, as automobile culture made its indelible mark.xl

The first pre-war signs of the automobile bore no resemblance to mid-twentieth century blight which can be associated properly with the phenomenon of the automobile. Instead, Story Motor Supply No. 2, designed by Fred Willson, celebrated the spirit of change and adventure which cars represented to many. Located at the northwest corner of Main and Wallace, the structure (no longer standing) blended with its surroundings. One neighbor was the gable-fronted frame building housing Goldberg and Shulman Hide & Fur Co. ("We pay more" read their sign. An additional sign reading "Auto Wrecking" suggested diversification of the hide and fur business.) A stately street lamp, comely sidewalks, and trees surrounded the hip-roofed Story Motor building with its adjoining arched canopy. Trellises ornamented and shaded the hooded area and a similar trellis motif served as a low fence at the corner. The structure, which was owned by Nelson Story, had the appearance of a small railroad depot, particularly with its low-hipped roof with a sign mounted vertically at the ridgeline. The enterprise was considered to be one of the first “true” filling stations, in part because “Only gas was sold, no horse shoeing.” Another Story Motor Supply, built in 1925 and referred to as the Church Street Texaco Station (no

- 28 - longer standing), adhered to even higher standards of decorum: a shingled, flared mansard roof with ridgepoles, finial balls, and decorative eave brackets sheltered an enclosed structure with double-hung windows with eight-over-eight sash arrangement and arched transoms, as well as an open arcaded area with columns on brick piers. A tall trellis-like fence with an arched gateway provided a backdrop to the rear. With its whimsical character, the structure could almost be seen as a reincarnation of the gazebos which were once so popular in Victorian age Bozeman.xli

It was during this Progressive Phase that the status of automobiles changed from fad to necessity. Cars were so unusual in 1900 that there was just one for every 9,500 people in the United States. Ten years later the ratio dropped to one vehicle for every 200 people and, by 1920, it had decreased further to one for every 13 people. The rise in cars hit railroads hard. Train travel was further curtailed in late 1917 when the federal government took over primary railroad lines to move troops and war materiel. This forced travelers into cars and most never looked back.xlii

As cars and automobile-related businesses increased during the Progressive Phase, some other businesses suffered. According to the Polk directory, there was just one auto dealer in Bozeman in 1910-1911 but there were two bicycle dealers, one buggy business, and seven blacksmiths. By 1922, however, the number of businesses (including tires and repairs) related to automobiles had increased to eighteen while the bicycle dealers had decreased to one, the buggy operation was gone, and the number of blacksmiths had dropped to four.xliii

Auto tourism grew as the traveling public shifted from railroads to cars. Initially, most auto tourists stayed in established hotels, but it did not take long for a free-spirited group of adventurers to come up with an alternative: auto camping. Anarchy reigned in this new sport during the 1910s as travelers camped wherever they wanted beside the road. Rural families soon grew tired of hosting unwanted visitors in their fields and orchards, however. By the end of the decade, towns began to see the financial benefit of having such tourists camp nearby. This led to the growth of municipal auto camps, usually centrally located near downtown merchants. Most of these free camps provided water, restrooms, and electric lights. In return, cities banked on these visitors spending freely in town. Bozeman established just such a camp by 1920 at Bogert's Grove, where tourists could pitch tents beside their automobiles.xliv

Auto camping boomed in the years following World War I, growing from 4.6 million campers in 1917 to 19.2 million in 1926. As campgrounds became more crowded, especially with working class tourists, more affluent travelers returned to hotels. Many cities then began to charge a small fee to cover costs and screen out free-loaders. These fees opened the door for competition from the private sector, and by the late 1920s, a majority of tourists were staying in private camps. Most municipal camps closed by the mid-1930s. Private campgrounds began renting platform tents, which then evolved into cabin camps. Such accommodations proliferated nationwide in the 1920s.xlv

- 29 - In 1928 Fred Willson listed "cabins in Tourist Park" among his job orders, presumably referring to the tourist park at 411 North Willson Avenue. This was apparently Bozeman’s first cabin camp, known as the Sundown Tourist Camp. It was listed in the 1931 Polk directory and continued in operation at least through 1956. The 1943 Sanborn map shows an L-shaped line of cabins on the west and south with an additional duplex on the north and four-plex on the east; a separate shower building stood in the center. The open area to the north may have been used for auto tent camping as well.xlvi

Auto tourists as well as owners needed other services as well. Gas stations multiplied during the Progressive Phase, increasing from just two in 1922 to twelve just nine years later. Several garages and filling stations are found in work orders recorded by Fred Willson's office. Transient visitors passing through Bozeman may have contributed to the need for a new Salvation Army building (Fred Willson, 1927), Chamber of Commerce building (Fred Willson, 1927), and the Beall Park bandstand (Fred Willson, 1929).xlvii

Accommodations for visitors were not all so informal or auto-related. Some tourists took advantage of Pete Karst's Gallatin Canyon bus line (1924) and sought more genteel lodgings at the Hotel Fechter (128-130 East Main Street, Fred Willson, 1918) or the Baxter Hotel (105 West Main Street, Fred Willson, 1929). The Milwaukee Railroad constructed another tourist inn at the nearby town of Salesville in 1927, which led to changing the town’s name to Gallatin Gateway. Tourists bound for Yellowstone National Park passed through this community.xlviii

While visitors found Bozeman accommodating, residents were working on a number of projects to enhance community life. These included construction of new educational and religious institutions, such as Emerson School and Holy Rosary Convent, and development of new commercial and recreational institutions, such as the fair, fairgrounds, and rodeo. Citizens watched construction of the new post office (32 South Tracy Avenue) in 1915 and the principal building for Deaconess Hospital (15 West Lamme Street) in 1920. Women's clubs, fraternal societies, and service clubs thrived and reorganized with new goals. The new Y.M.C.A. building was used in conjunction with the public school recreational programs. The symphony was established soon after the war and the Ellen Theatre, designed by Fred Willson, was constructed in 1919-1920. “Popcorn Johnny” became a legend plying his trade on Main Street, dispensing popcorn from a wagon like a 1920s version of Bozeman’s early tent businesses. Mrs. E. Broox Martin provided funds to build the Beall Park Community Center in 1927. The building was converted into a community arts center in 1984 and remains in public use.

Up and down Main Street the spirit of change could be seen in the numerous and varied alterations which took precedence over new construction, particularly in the 1920s. Even where there was continuity of use, new facades were designed, many by Fred Willson. Storefronts became extensions of signage as they eclectically separated one bay from another on the same building facade. It was during this period that street level facades were brought into the modern world, leaving upper levels strangely behind in a previous age. Some of the commercial buildings' most distinguishing characteristics, such as

- 30 - turrets or domes, were removed after the 1925 earthquake, leaving the upper story facades mute and chastened. Some remodels, such as the Bon-Ton building on Main Street (Fred Willson, 1928), completely covered over the original surfaces. Another was the Victorian Sbree, Ferris & White building (34-42 West Main Street, pre-1890), hidden behind a new, stuccoed Mission style structure applied over the exterior.

The spirit of change also was visible in residential buildings which shifted to favor the Arts and Crafts bungalow, especially in the neighborhoods near the college. The bungalow was viewed as a scientific, practical, modest home which could reform both rich and the poor and create a norm for those in between. Innumerable pattern books and catalogues featured everything from plans to precut components for assembly. The influence of the Arts and Crafts movement appeared in its clearest form in 1913 with the Purdum house (602 West Story Street), designed by Fred Willson. A number of residential structures of the Craftsman look were constructed on South Tracy and throughout Bozeman. Some quite modest examples of the bungalow can be found in the working class neighborhood on North Tracy. Most of these bungalow residences were constructed during the Progressive Phase using modest plans based on pattern books. Mass produced materials replaced handcrafted, rustic, or regional materials. W. R. Plew, of the college's architectural engineering department, designed a one-and-a-half story bungalow or "bungaloid" house for his own family on South Willson in 1915. Several others nearby have a similar appearance.

Plew also applied the bungalow form to other buildings. The 1927 Beall Park Community Center is the clearest non-residential form of the Arts and Crafts movement in Bozeman. Its design utilized natural materials which answered the requirements for rusticity and regional influence as outlined in Gustav Stickley's journal, The Craftsman. Plew also favored the bungalow form for schoolhouse design and wrote a bulletin, published by Montana State Department of Health and Public Instruction, recommending the design. This consequently influenced rural school plans in the county and elsewhere.xlix

The apartment building, an adventuresome departure from the traditions of single-family detached houses, began to appear in Bozeman at the beginning of the Progressive Phase. Considered radical by some, the apartment building was also viewed as the height of modernity when it offered "A.M.I." – all modern improvements. The Blackmore Apartments, designed by Fred Willson in 1913-14, was the first of its kind in Bozeman, and featured a pleasant inner court, sun porches, and "the finest, most up-to-date conveniences." Another was the Bridger Arms Apartments (103-111 South Fourth Avenue). The designer was Professor Cheever of the architectural school at the College.

Nationalization Phase (1930-1945)

The stock market crash of 1929 precipitated an economic depression that gripped the nation, and indeed the world, for much of the next decade. By the time newly-elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the oath of office in March 1933, thirteen

- 31 - million Americans were unemployed. Bozeman, like other American communities, faced many challenges during this period, but with the assistance of federal funds, it was able to add much-needed educational and governmental facilities. Along with the precedent- setting federal funding came the now familiar federal guidelines and regulations, as well as new technology, materials, and building styles. The economic crisis eased by the late 1930s and the country finally boomed again after the end of World War II.

During this period, federal-state relations shifted as government bureaucracies expanded on all levels. Locally, the 1930s and 1940s brought about a new relationship between the city of Bozeman and the federal government. President Roosevelt’s New Deal generated a host of programs to provide employment. Federal funds, matched at least partially by state or local money, were channeled into public works programs that constructed everything from local roads to massive dams. Some Gallatin County citizens greeted this new reality with a degree of reluctance or outright opposition, voting down bond issues to fund projects only partially subsidized by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Other citizens and local officials persisted and finally prevailed, approving bond issues and WPA funding for new public school buildings and a new courthouse. Montana State College president Alfred Atkinson found public works programs so distasteful that he resisted use of the funds for campus housing until it was almost too late. He finally relented and the college secured federal funds for the Atkinson Quadrangle women's dormitory (Seventh Avenue and Cleveland, Fred Willson, 1938).l

Despite incidences of anti-New Deal sentiment, the sheer economic hardship of the times demanded participation of state and local governments and their institutions. While some Montanans had achieved economic prosperity during the brief boom of the late 1920s, drought and depression caused twenty-eight Montana counties to seek aid from the Red Cross by 1931. Farmers and ranchers faced market disasters in addition to dust and wind, just as Montana's copper and lumber industries felt the full impact of the stock market crash by 1931.li

Many unemployed loggers and miners found WPA work building the Fort Peck Dam in northeastern Montana. At a total of $100 million, this was the largest public works project ever built in the state. Some men worked on smaller but locally significant projects such as the airport constructed at Belgrade by the Civil Aviation Administration. One of the most popular New Deal programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which enrolled unmarried young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty- five. They earned $30 per month for conservation-related work but were required to send $25 of that home to dependent family members. In Gallatin County, the CCC worked with the Forest Service in 1937 to construct the Squaw Creek Ranger Station and other structures, as well as roads and campsites at Squaw Creek and Hyalite Canyon south of Bozeman. In 1936, the State Water Conservation Board began construction at Willow Creek on the first of two storage reservoirs to provide irrigation to Gallatin County farms; it was completed in 1938. Construction on the second reservoir, located at Hyalite Canyon, was started a year later but was not completed until 1950.lii

- 32 - During the New Deal years, the prevailing architectural styles in Gallatin County expressed new national ideals of efficiency and streamlining through structure and ornament that derived from industrial design. The new courthouse and high school - traditional symbols of civic pride - boldly spoke the new language of Art Moderne, with restrained touches of Art Deco for the sake of elegance. Longfellow, Irving, and Hawthorne public schools further recalled the European influence of the Bauhaus which had taken hold in America by the 1930s. Civic pride no longer stopped at buildings, but reached out expansively to the contribution of the engineer in solving problems of irrigation, transportation, and recreation. The local community was groomed for a role in a national economic and geographic network.

Yet the most significant effect of the New Deal on the future of Bozeman took the form not of a monument, building, or public works project. Instead, it took form in a new economic and political relationship between Bozeman’s resident institution, Montana State College, and the rural communities across the state. As the administrative agency for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), the MSC Extension Service became Montana's principal actor in New Deal farm policy. Roy E. Huffman called the AAA “the largest civilian government effort in the history of the world.” In Montana, the agency served thousands of farmers and ranchers, many of whom participated as part- time administrators of the program, in conjunction with the college's representative, the county agent. M. L. Wilson of Montana State, who helped formulate the “domestic allotment” plan central to AAA policy, was chosen by Roosevelt to head the Wheat Division. Another Montanan, Chester Davis, became director of the AAA in 1935. Davis had served as editor of the Montana Farmer and as Montana's Commissioner of Agriculture under Governor Dixon.liii

The importance of MSC to rural Montana was bolstered both by its presence in every county in the state as well as by its expertise in finding technical solutions to agricultural problems. The new emphasis on economic and managerial concerns further broadened the influence of the college on the state. Roland R. Renne's ten-year study (1930-1940) of the tax structure in Montana, for instance, led to legislative enactment of some of Renne's recommendations. His study of the organization of county government in Montana resulted in the restructuring of several county governments, including adoption of county manager government in Petroleum County. The City of Butte issued a report on the Butte Economic Survey, conducted by Renne with WPA assistance. Although Montana State had traditionally offered services statewide, the New Deal radically redefined and broadened the scope of those activities. Ironically, M. L. Wilson, then director of the Extension Service at the national level, sought unsuccessfully in 1950 to reverse the growth of some non-educational activities of the Extension Service. He worked in conjunction with representatives of the Land Grant College Association particularly to target Extension Service activities that had provided political advantages for the National Farm Bureau Federation since the 1930s and the AAA.liv

The 1930s continued many social, economic, and architectural practices established in Bozeman during earlier periods. Main Street facades underwent some transformation to Art Moderne or Art Deco styles (such as the Nash-Finch Building, 612 East Main Street),

- 33 - and infill buildings often compromised between the verticality of their older neighbors and the horizontality of newer practices. Architect Fred Willson expanded his repertoire as he designed not only such traditional structures as the collegiate Gothic Revival Atkinson Quadrangle, but also the new courthouse and public schools, Main Street remodeling, and some “period houses” for some of Bozeman's entrepreneurs. These included homes for department store owner James R. Chambers (616 West Story, 1932) and flour mill owner Eugene Graf (504 West Cleveland, 1935). While bungalows remained popular, they were joined increasingly in the 1940s by simple box-like houses financed through federally subsidized programs like those created by the Federal Housing Act of 1934. These newer homes replaced older structures or filled empty lots on the borders of the north and south residential neighborhoods. Sturdily but economically built, these homes often blended well in scale and siting with their older neighbors.

Some new apartments and duplexes appeared in the south end of Bozeman during this period. The building at 219-221 West Arthur Street provides a simple but elegant example of the streamlined Moderne style. The two-story stucco duplex with flat roof has a symmetrical facade with an outset enclosed entry. On either side of the front steps is a metal banister designed with three concentric arcs. The porthole windows in the front doors mirror the pair of porthole windows in the second story above. Pairs of two-over- two windows are set in the corners. The horizontal lines of these window divisions mimic the horizontal bars in the portholes as well as the lines of the metal railing above the outset entry. A single-car garage is attached on either side, set back from the facade. Another larger Moderne apartment building is found at 1017-1019 South Grand Avenue.

Agricultural manufacturing, one of the oldest economic traditions of the Gallatin Valley, continued into the 1930s and 1940s. The Bozeman Canning Company provided jobs for both men and women during the Depression, but it limited employees’ hours in order to share the work among many families in need of a paycheck. Businesses related to grain processing remained an important sector of the economy in Bozeman. Elevator complexes rose tall above the railroad tracks, storing the grain that went into the production of animal feed, cereal, and flour. The number of flour mills increased during this period when the Bon Ton Mills joined Montana Flour Mills and the Gallatin Valley Milling Company. Eugene Graf established the Bon Ton Mills in 1932 to process flour for his bakery interests. The mill was designed by Fred Willson and still stands on North Wallace, now renovated for new uses.lv

Creameries continued as an important aspect of agricultural manufacturing. Bozeman supported two creameries in 1922 to process milk from five local dairies. Ten years later, twenty-one dairymen joined forces to establish the Gallatin Cooperative Creamery, housed initially in the former Milwaukee Depot. During that depression year, the cooperative’s advocates voiced hopes that the venture would “more than double the farm population of the county.” Dairy cooperatives had become increasingly important in the early twentieth century because they allowed small farmers to band together to improve their bargaining power, thus ensuring better prices for their products. By the 1930s, these cooperatives nationwide produced one-quarter of all cheese and more than one-third of all butter. The local Bozeman product was known as Gallatin Gold.lvi

- 34 -

These industries depended on the railroad for transportation during the first half of the twentieth century. All of the major industries in Bozeman were located along railroad spurs which left the main line to run past warehouses, grain elevators, the bottling company, and the pea processing plants. Without this transportation link, these businesses would have had considerable difficulty getting their products to market.

The Automobile ownership and use continued to increase during the Depression years, encouraging the growth of auto-related businesses. In Bozeman, gas stations increased from twelve in 1931 to twenty-one in 1940. There were two tourist camps in 1931, the Bozeman Auto Camp at 1001 East Main and the Sundown Tourist Camp at 411 North Willson Avenue (mentioned earlier). Just nine years later, they were joined by Nicholson’s Cottage Court at 5 South 8th Avenue and Henry H. Jeter’s accommodations at 725 South 7th Avenue. Nicholson’s was a large operation that filled half a city block with twenty-two units organized into a continuous U-shaped plan that alternated living quarters and attached garages or carports. Jeter’s motel was a smaller business with just ten units laid out in two parallel lines. It also featured a continuous line that alternated living space with car space. Jeter’s soon became known as the Gallatin Motel which survives today (2007) as apartments. These four tourist camps represent the early form of motels in Bozeman.lvii

Increases in enrollment at Montana State College helped to keep Bozeman’s economy afloat in the 1930s. When housing became an even greater concern than usual for students, some resourcefully arranged for group purchase of residences. For instance, women students purchased the Kenyon home (201 South Third) in 1936, and two years later, a men's group bought the former Fisher residence (712 South Willson). This Mission style home was known as the “Men's Co-op” until the 1980s when it became a single family home once more.lviii

The close of the 1930s brought a waning of New Deal programs. European countries became engulfed in World War II by the end of the decade, and the conflict soon entangled the United States as well. Much of the economy shifted during this period to support the war effort. Construction of an engineering building, Ryon Lab, in 1939 symbolized the growing importance of the industrial community to the land grant college, formerly dominated by agriculture. Military training programs began on campus in 1940 and included civilian pilot training (1940); “short courses” in national defense (1941); nurse's training in conjunction with Bozeman Deaconess Hospital (1942); Army Air Force Training Command (1943); and Army Specia1ized Training Units (1943). Campus facilities were strained, despite construction of a long-awaited student union building (Fred Willson, 1940). In the spring of 1943, women students made room for military trainees by moving out of their dormitories and into men’s fraternity houses, which had been closed while the men were serving in the military. As the war created a nationwide labor shortage, Bozeman felt its effects. When an emergency call went out to harvest sugar beets, the president of the college closed classes so students could help. College officials also cancelled spring vacation in 1942 so that students could leave early for summer defense work.lix

- 35 -

Both news of the war and entertainment were supplied by the local movie theaters, notably the Ellen, which had undergone remodeling and acoustical revamping for the “talkies” in 1931. KRBM, now KXXL, began broadcasting as Bozeman’s first radio station by 1939. As the only station for eleven years, KRBM attempted to fill a variety of roles, including the promotion and encouragement of "Victory Gardens" during the war. The station provided a community garden plot near its transmitter, thereby enabling those without land to participate in this patriotic activity. The county agent from the Extension Service judged the gardens and awarded a prize.lx

The National Guard constructed a new Armory in 1941 on land donated by the Story family, Bozeman pioneers. That same year, the 163rd Infantry Regiment of Bozeman was activated for service, which included duty in New Guinea and the Southern Philippines. The Armory, designed by Fred Willson in a simplified Art Deco style, served as a community gathering place for many years, but is now scheduled for demolition.lxi

Under an arrangement with the federal government during the war, the railroads agreed to a stepped-up maintenance schedule in order to avoid wartime nationalization. This may explain the attention given to the Northern Pacific tunnel, which was rebuilt in 1944.

World War II ended first in Europe on May 8, 1945, and then in Japan with its surrender on August 14. The United States prepared to welcome 11 million veterans home. The country was infused with hope for the future, yet also haunted by memories of the recent Great Depression. Thus this phase ended with a mix of optimism and uncertainty.

Postwar Expansion Phase (1946-1970)

The end of the war and the return of millions of soldiers stimulated a period of tremendous growth in the United States. During the preceding several years, wartime restrictions had limited production and sales of consumer goods, so workers had saved their paychecks in record numbers. Once the restrictions were lifted, the country erupted in a frenzy of consumerism as people spent their savings on everything from toasters and washing machines to cars and new houses.

The automobile is a fitting symbol for this period of rapid postwar growth. The number of cars nationwide increased 133 percent between 1945 and 1960, with many families adding a second vehicle. Cars, in turn, gave people mobility and enabled them to move out from the city core to the suburbs. A staggering 1.2 million Americans left the city for the suburbs every year during the 1950s until one-quarter of the population lived in suburbia by 1960. This transformation was fueled not only by the automobile but also by a severe lack of housing nationwide which forced more than 2 million married couples to live with relatives in 1948. Loans through the Veterans Administration (VA) or Federal Housing Administration (FHA) stimulated a massive construction program.lxii

- 36 - Another major factor in these profound changes was the rapid increase in population during the postwar years. As returning veterans married and settled down, they started a baby boom that lasted the next twenty years. The population of the United States grew by 19 million in the 1940s, a healthy increase over the pervious decade. But it then shot up by close to 30 million in the 1950s. This huge increase in the number of children had ripple effects that are still felt today. An obvious need was for new schools to handle the increased enrollment - 10 million in the 1950s - as the early baby boomers moved into the school systems. Families during this period became more child-centered, a trend that was reflected in new homes with more bedrooms than earlier houses as well as kid- friendly spaces like family rooms or dens. Despite the stereotype of the stay-at-home mom of the 1950s, women moved into the workforce in large numbers during that decade so that by 1960 there were twice the number of working women as in 1940.lxiii

During the Postwar Expansion Phase, growth in Bozeman reflected these nationwide trends. The city physically expanded its boundaries as new subdivisions sprouted around the periphery in all directions, with new commercial corridors to serve the new residential areas. In 1960, Bozeman included 2,640 acres and during the next decade, it nearly doubled to more than 5,000 acres. As the city expanded outward, mileage in the city street system increased as well, rising from forty miles in 1950 to forty-eight miles in 1961 and then, in a spurt of growth, increasing to sixty-five miles in 1970. Paving of city streets was an ongoing project during this period; just nineteen miles were paved in 1950 but this increased to fifty miles twenty years later. These new streets added not only mileage but also variety to the established grid of square blocks since developers of new subdivisions often preferred curving streets to add a more casual, rural feel to a housing development. This period of growth encouraged the city to hire its first city planner in the late 1950s. S. R. DeBoer worked in conjunction with a planning board appointed in 1957. Residents were slow to see the need for planning, however.lxiv

The population of Bozeman increased dramatically during this same period. The number of city residents grew by 65 percent between 1950 and 1970, from 11,325 to 18,670; much of this increase came after 1960 when the population was just 13,361. Gallatin County saw similar growth, rising from 21,902 in 1950 to 32,505 just twenty years later. Developers carved new subdivisions out of farmland at the edge of Bozeman, expanding growth well beyond the city limits.lxv

Many of the new homes built in Bozeman in the late 1940s and early 1950s were designed in the Minimal Traditional style. This had been the most popular style nationwide just prior to World War II and once building resumed, it continued its prominence into the early 1950s. These modest homes drew on elements of the earlier Tudor style and often included a prominent front-facing gabled wing or ell and a large chimney. But the designs were generally smaller in scale than Tudor houses, with a lower pitch to the roof, closely cropped eaves, and minimal detailing.lxvi

Minimal Traditional houses were popular in postwar Bozeman. Some are found as infill homes constructed on vacant lots in older neighborhoods or at the edge of these areas. Others are seen in higher concentrations that reflect the city’s expansion during this

- 37 - period. One such area is the 400 block of North 4th Avenue between Villard and Short streets with houses dating from the early 1950s. Most are modest one-story or one-and-a- half story frame houses set above full basements. Lots in the neighborhood are relatively small and reflect the blue collar origins. The house at 410 North 4th Avenue is a good example of this 1950s style. The frame home is topped with a side gable roof; a front- facing cross-gable spans two-thirds of the facade and shelters a second gabled projection over the front window and door. Windows are simple one-over-one sash. The horizontal weatherboard siding contrasts with the vertical boards in the front gable, where each board terminates in a point to give a zigzag decoration.lxvii

As the Minimal Traditional style began to fade in popularity, another rose to take its place and continued as a prominent style through the remainder of the Postwar Expansion Phase. Ranch houses originated with California architects prior to World War II. Their increase in popularity following the war was tied to the spread of the automobile. Newer developments in the suburbs tended to have larger lots which allowed for the sprawling new design. Attached carports or garages further accentuate the facade width, one of the key design elements of the Ranch house. The one-story homes usually have an asymmetrical design and low pitched roof. Roof styles vary and can be side-gabled, cross-gabled, or hipped; the eave overhang is moderate to wide and may be boxed or open. Some Ranch houses are quite plain while others have decorative porch supports, shutters, or other ornamentation. Large picture windows are common since they came into vogue with the Ranch house, particularly in living rooms. Other windows are set singly or frequently in a continuous line or ribbon.lxviii

Homes along South Willson Avenue, from approximately Garfield Street to Kagy Boulevard, were built in the 1960s. The streetscape illustrates the move away from the earlier pattern of the perpendicular street grid and associated rectangular lots. Willson Avenue starts to curve south of Grant Street, arcing southwesterly toward its terminus at Kagy Blvd. Lots in this neighborhood are wide. Driveways provide direct access to garages from Willson instead of from an alley as is seen in older neighborhoods.

The design of the one-story home at 1602 South Willson Avenue, built in 1962, includes typical Ranch elements. The facade width is emphasized with the addition of a two-car garage connected to the house by a breezeway. The low-pitched hipped roof with wide eaves continues the horizontal emphasis, as do the bands of windows set high in the walls. Farther down the street at 1805 South Willson Avenue, another Ranch house illustrates the more whimsical variation of the style. Constructed in 1964, the one-story frame house has the typical low, horizontal massing topped with a side-gable roof. The attached garage has a prominent gable roof which faces front. Its exceptionally wide eaves are supported by scalloped braces with a similar scalloping pattern continued in the fascia boards. The gable peak of the garage holds a fake bird house. The curvilinear theme is continued in the horizontal siding with a wavy edge and the curved balusters on the porch railing.lxix

The Split Level style grew out of the Ranch house design in the 1950s, and it became increasingly common in the next two decades. These homes generally have a two-story

- 38 - component adjoining a one-story unit, with the two offset by half a story to give the home three different living levels. These allowed for a child-centered family room on the lower level, general family areas on the mid-level, and sleeping rooms on the upper level. The attached garage usually adjoins the lower level. Designs retain the horizontal emphasis of the Ranch house with its low-pitched roof and wide eave overhangs. Siding material often contrasts from one level to the next, with brick on one level and horizontal weatherboard above.lxx

The large Split Level home at 1431 South 3rd Avenue presents a slightly different version from the one described above. The main block of the home has two levels, with the living area upstairs and the sleeping area in the half-basement lower level. Attached at mid-level is the entry room, with the attached two-car garage set just slightly lower. The large garage and main living block are both topped by shallow hipped roofs with wide overhanging eaves, while the recessed entry has a smaller roof. A bank of picture windows lines the living room facade above a ribbon of smaller casement windows in the lower level. The house is clad with wide weatherboard siding up to the mid-point of the upper level. At this point, it changes to narrow vertical boards that provide a subtle contrast to the main body of the house.

The Contemporary style is also found in numerous Bozeman houses dating from the 1950s and 1960s, primarily in newer south-side neighborhoods. Such houses, usually designed by an architect, retain the low, horizontal massing popular in the period. Roofs are usually either flat or a with a wide, low-pitched gable that faces the facade. Both roof styles highlight exposed beams and other supports. Wall cladding varies and is often a mix of masonry and wood; detailing is minimal.lxxi

One of the earlier examples of this style is the modest one-story frame house at 1310 South 3rd Avenue. Built in 1952, it has two primary blocks: the residence, topped by an almost-flat shed roof that slopes slightly to the left, and the one-car garage which projects to the front and is topped by a shed roof that slopes slightly to the right. The main roof overlaps the garage roof near the house-garage juncture. A ribbon of windows crosses the center facade, with another along the garage wall. Siding is wide horizontal weatherboards that contrast with the vertical board and battens in the center facade. Trim is minimal.

Another early Contemporary house, dating from 1958, is found at 1548 South Grand Avenue. The one-story frame house presents a wide facade to the street, with a two-car garage extension at the right end. It is topped with a shallow-pitched, front-facing gable roof with exposed beams. The facade to the left of the front door is recessed and the front eave angles back to meet the new roofline. The front door is flanked by a sidelight the same size as the door, and both are topped with large square fixed-pane windows which provide sunlight to the front entry. Other windows are casement or awning styles.

The one-story home at 1611 South Willson Avenue, built in 1963, has the feel of a Ranch house with its side-gabled wing and low-pitched roof. But the front-facing gabled ell, with its distinctive support beams exposed, is typical of the Contemporary styles. The

- 39 - lower walls of this wing are sided in narrow red brick to match the massive chimney; the brick is laid in vertical columns, providing an added design element. It contrasts with the wood above and the wide weatherboard siding of the remainder of the home.

While most Americans aspired to own their own home, many were unable to fulfill that dream. Mobile homes provided an affordable option, either to buy or to rent. Bozeman had three trailer courts in 1961 and six by 1970. One of these six was the North Willson Courts, which had evolved from the late-1920s cabin camp for tourists into a trailer court. It continues to operate today (2007).lxxii

During the Postwar Expansion Phase, the nation’s increasing dependence on the automobile influenced commercial building just as it did residential development. Consumers began to avoid the older downtown commercial centers with their insufficient parking areas and instead started to patronize newer shopping centers being built on the edges of cities and in the new suburbs. These new commercial developments were a significant break with the past. While the traditional downtown business district contained rows of buildings with adjoining facades fronting on the sidewalk, the new shopping areas featured stores that were either freestanding or adjoining others, set back from the main streets, and surrounded by large open parking lots. With easy free parking, these new stores and malls began to pull customers away from downtown.lxxiii

As downtown areas drifted into decline in the postwar years, merchants and building owners tried to stop the slide by once again modernizing the historic facades. Some buildings got a new look on the ground floor only to minimize the cost and maximize the impact to the window-shopping public. Other edifices were completely redone, with new facades that hid the historic fabric. Finally, other historic buildings were razed to make room either for a new structure or for off-street parking, an ever-increasing pressure on downtown centers.

During the postwar years, Bozeman continued to grow and prosper as a regional market and commercial center for Gallatin County and beyond. Such growth brought frequent changes to the business district, such as the installation of new facades and windows in existing buildings. Alterations in lower facades usually involved replacement of original windows with large plate glass storefronts. Glass doors added to the modern look, as did narrow-brick veneerss set in the wall below the storefront windows. Several other Main Street buildings saw their entire historic façades covered my modern materials; now, in the 21st century, some of these historic façades are being uncovered and restored.

A later remodel of the 1920 U.S. Bank building, 104 East Main Street, produced a completely modern look. The five-story structure is essentially a two-part vertical block, with the first story distinct from the homogenous upper floors. The ground floor features dark textured or pebbled concrete walls punctuated by pairs of inset windows in full- story, curvilinear white window surrounds that contrast starkly with the dark walls. The upper floors project over the ground level and have strong vertical pilasters dividing the glass walls into bays along both primary elevations. A wide white cornice band limits the upward thrust and caps the building.

- 40 -

The First Security Bank, 208 East Main Street, was constructed in 1960 on a corner lot. The two-story building is set back from both streets, distinguishing it from its historic neighbors and turning the front sidewalk into a small plaza. While the U.S. Bank building emphasizes vertical lines, the First Security design features strong horizontal bands. The first floor is a glass wall while the second floor on the facade is mostly a tall band of pebbled concrete panels beneath a ribbon window band. On the side facing South Bozeman Avenue, a balcony/canopy projects over the landscaping, anchored by right-angle supports extending out from the roof. The balcony wall has a band of rectangular panels which appear to float above the sidewalk.

While parts of the downtown core were getting a facelift during the 1950s and 1960s, the main thrust of new construction was at the outer edges of the town. These edges extended farther each year in conjunction with new development. For instance, the west end of Main Street ended just past 8th Avenue in 1950, according to the Polk directory. By 1961, it had moved to 15th Avenue where the new Buttrey’s Shopping Center was located. Just one year later, West Main had pushed farther west in a new alignment, curving southwest and joining West College Street to form Huffine Lane, which then continued westward across the valley floor.

The GM auto and truck dealership of Robert F. Dye was one of the largest businesses that settled at the outer limits of West Main Street. Dye moved his business to 1919 West Main, now Billion Auto Group, ca. 1968 from his earlier long-time location at 512 East Main. The Bozeman architectural firm of O. Berg and Associates designed the new building with a distinctive futuristic motif. The auto showroom is a circular structure eighty feet in diameter. On the exterior of the building, large curving ribs arc upward from the lower walls to terminate well above the projecting flat roof, imparting a dynamic sense of potential energy. The dramatic design of the showroom overshadows the modest wing of shop bays that extend to the north.lxxiv

Two smaller structures downtown continued the futuristic designs of the new space age. The circular design of the First Security Bank drive-up area, with its cluster of three “mushrooms,” suggests a cluster of spaceships just ready for takeoff. It was a fitting design concept for a period obsessed with space travel. Just up the street is a small display building known locally as the “snowflake.” Built by a U.S. Bank predecessor, the small octagonal building has metal-framed glass walls topped with a series of gable roofs.

Outside of the downtown core, much of the commercial development of the Postwar Expansion Phase concentrated on or near Main Street, both east and west of downtown, and along North 7th Avenue. Since the 1920s, transcontinental U.S. Route 10 passed through Bozeman along this route, entering the city on East Main and continuing westward through downtown and then north on 7th. This became a corridor with businesses catering to both local residents and travelers from afar. The postwar economy led to a growing number of auto-related businesses, from car and truck repair shops to sales lots and gas stations. The new concept of drive-ins led to construction of Colonel’s

- 41 - Drive Inn, 1104 East Main, by 1956, and the A&W Root Beer Drive In, 1013 West College Street, five years later.

Americans began driving greater distances as roads improved nationwide. A big push came after Congress passed the Highways Act of 1956. It came with an appropriation of $32 billion which led to the construction of 41,000 miles of highways. The new federal interstate highway system reached Bozeman by the 1960s, although initially in short, disconnected segments. I-90, which largely followed the route of U.S. 10, was completed both east and west of Bozeman by 1970. The segment to the north of the city was not finished for another year, however, forcing motorists to follow the old route along Main and North 7th until 1971. By then, the new interstate provided a divided highway with limited access.lxxv

As in previous periods, the increase in automobile travel generated new businesses that catered to the rising number of car owners and tourists. Gas stations multiplied from twenty-one in 1950 to twenty-nine in 1961 and to forty by 1970. While these facilities concentrated on East and West Main near the downtown center for many years, they began to move outward with the 1950s. In 1956, they stretched east to the United Gaseteria at 1205 East Main and west to the Carter Servicenter at 720 West Main. Five years later, there was a Famous Brands gas station at 1601 West Main. New service stations advanced northward on 7th Avenue as well, with four clustered near the new interstate highway by 1970.lxxvi

Motels also increased along the same routes in the postwar years. The most dramatic growth came in the 1950s. The decade started with a total of eight motels which increased to thirteen by 1961. Another was added by 1970. Most of the growth along Main Street clustered at the east end of town, near the already established Bozeman Auto Camp, which continued to operate at least through 1961. Mountain View Courts (1010 East Main) appeared by 1950, the Ranch House Motel (1201 East Main) by 1956, and the Alpine Lodge (1017 East Main) by 1965. Unlike the east end cluster, two new motels were built in the 1960s closer to downtown Bozeman. The appropriately-named City Center Motel (507 West Main) was in business at least by 1961 and was joined by the Imperial 400 (122 West Main) in 1963. Other motels were constructed along North 7th Avenue, stretching northward as the city expanded toward the new interstate.lxxvii

Unlike hotels, which initially catered to train or bus travelers, motels marketed their accommodations to the auto tourist. They were located along a main highway, with units set back from the road to allow for parking. Rooms were arranged in either a linear, L- shaped, or U-shaped plan, in one- or two-story blocks. The 1963 Imperial 400, part of a nationwide chain, followed a standard company plan. The two-story motel has units set in a modified U-plan. Each room has a door and large set of windows, arranged symmetrically so that the first story an exact image of the second. A covered walkway, enclosed with a simple metal railing and balusters, provides access to the second story as well as shelter for the sidewalk below. The office is located in the short leg of the U-plan adjacent to the highway, with a covered drive-through adjoining the office entrance.

- 42 - The number of churches increased considerably during the postwar period, growing from seventeen in 1950 to twenty-eight in 1970. These new buildings exhibited a variety of modern designs, from the restrained lines of the First Church of Christ Scientist (502 South 8th Avenue) to the exuberant upward sweep of the the Christus Collaegium (714 South 8th Avenue).lxxviii

Bozeman’s dependence on agricultural manufacturing lessened in the Postwar Expansion Phase. The Gallatin Seed Company, the sole survivor of three seed companies, closed ca. 1961. The related cannery had ended its operations in 1958. Montana Flour Mills which, with its predecessor companies, had milled flour for eighty-three years, ended production in 1967. Perhaps related to these closures, the number of Bozeman businesses selling agricultural implements dropped from six in 1950 to just two in 1970.lxxix

One survivor in the fading agricultural sector was the Gallatin Cooperative Creamery. It continued to grow and prosper until it outgrew its original facility. The cooperative constructed a new office and bulk plant at 1001 North 7th Avenue ca. 1957. The creamery, whose name changed to Darigold in the early 1960s, became the largest milk processing plant in Montana, with forty-seven dairy farms within twenty-five miles of Bozeman.lxxx

As a celebration of the region’s agricultural heritage, the Bozeman Stock Show Association put on a livestock show in 1945. It was so successful that the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce and the Extension Service worked with local ranchers and stock raisers to make this an annual event. The Montana Winter Fair was established in 1946 and it remains popular enough to draw a large number of visitors to Bozeman each year.lxxxi

Although agricultural manufacturing waned in the postwar period, several wood product industries rose in its place. These included the Idaho Pole Company plant in Bozeman, which opened in 1946; the pulpwood plant at Gallatin Gateway, started in 1947 by the Corcorans of Wisconsin; and the Yellowstone Pine Company in Belgrade, which began producing pine paneling and laminated beams in 1955.lxxxii

The rapid growth of Bozeman during the Postwar Expansion Phase led to the construction of several new schools to accommodate an ever-increasing number of students. The school district built a new high school on West Main Street in 1957 and expanded it just six years later. Bozeman High School is a sprawling campus with a series of one-story red brick classroom units with banks of large windows sheltered under wide overhanging eaves. In 1965, the district constructed a new junior high school on land adjacent to the north side of the high school. The two-story main unit is set into a bank on the south side so that the ground level comes up to with window sills. The two- part facade exposes two full stories. Elementary schools expanded with the addition of Whittier School, on west Peach Street.

The presence of government and its services visibly increased in Bozeman during this same postwar period. The U.S. government, long an important player in the American

- 43 - West, completed a large office complex in 1966 on the south side of the business district. The federal building, on West Babcock, stands five stories tall and extends nearly a block in length. The first story of this two-part commercial block is essentially all glass, topped with a horizontal band. The upper walls have square windows above solid square panels. The verticality is emphasized by double pilasters dividing the facade into multiple bays, with single pilasters further separating each bay into four vertical segments. A narrow band caps the building at the flat roofline. Federal agencies housed there in 1967 represented locally prominent functions of the U.S. government and included the post office on the ground floor; the Department of Agriculture (Gallatin National Forest Supervisor’s Office, Soil Conservation Service, County Extension Demonstration Kitchen); and the Selective Service System draft board.

In 1965, the City of Bozeman moved its offices from the City Hall-Opera House (built in 1888, demolished in 1966) at Main and Rouse to a new city hall located diagonally across the street intersection. The modest one-story brick building with wide, overhanging cornice band, contrasted starkly with its more elaborate predecessor. At the same time, the city also constructed new buildings for the fire and police departments behind the city hall.

Under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Roland R. Renne, president of Montana State College from 1943-1964, Bozeman’s most important institution grew in every possible way. Campus acreage doubled as it expanded one mile westward and one-half mile southward. The curricula multiplied, as did the degree programs. Faculty increased from 132 in the 1944-1945 year to 389 twenty years later, trying to keep pace with the student population that swelled from 1,155 to 5,250 in the same period. This spurt of growth culminated in the new designation as Montana State University in 1965.lxxxiii

Returning veterans had an enormous impact on the campus, nearly doubling the number of students by 1946. Encouraged by the 1944 G.I. Bill of Rights, this temporary surge of students stretched campus housing. Officials met these needs with emergency solutions that were intended to be temporary but instead served for decades. These structures, purchased with $50,000 earned through military training programs, included trailers, prefab war service buildings, Quonset huts, and a “hudson type” dormitory.lxxxiv

A major construction program from the late 1940s through the 1960s transformed the campus, both in extent and skyline profile. Despite the critical housing needs, the first new building was the Renne Library, completed in 1950. The vertical lines of its six-bay facade are emphasized by the concrete pilasters, solid brick side bays, and the tall glass walls of the center three bays. Numerous classroom and laboratory buildings followed, their rectangular, flat-roofed massing contrasting with the earlier gabled buildings.lxxxv

One of the most unusual facilities of the postwar years was the 1958 Breeden Field House. Although President Renne promoted the project, critics derided it as “Rollie’s Folly” for its grandiose scale, with room enough to seat 8,400 people – far more than the student population. Local Bozeman architects Oswald E. Berg, Jr., and Fred J. Willson designed the circular building with a 300-foot diameter and 90 foot height. The domed

- 44 - roof, supported by clear span wooden beams, was touted as the largest such structure in existence. Once it opened, huge crowds filled it for athletic events and vindicated Renne’s idea. In the decades since, it has hosted intercollegiate sports, concerts, powwows, rodeos, trade shows, and famous speakers.lxxxvi

Like the classroom buildings of the 1950s, the new dormitories had boxy massing and flat rooflines. They included Hannon Hall and Lewis and Clark Hall (with its distinctive four-wing plan), both completed in 1955, and Hapner Hall, finished in 1959. Dormitory design took a decided upward thrust in the 1960s with the appearance of several tall towers rising high above the campus. The two Hedges Halls, completed in 1965, rise eleven stories in height, the vertical lines of the pilasters countered by the alternating horizontal ribbons of windows and solid walls. The tall, rectangular lines of the towers are balanced by the low curves of the circular food service building set between the dorms. An even more unusual tower followed in 1966 with Roskie Hall, a cluster of three round, connectedtowers that rise eleven stories.lxxxvii

Fraternities and sororities offered students an option for off-campus group housing. Over the years, they were housed in large older homes in the south part of town. A spate of building in the 1960s replaced many of these older facilities with new fraternity and sorority houses, set in southside neighborhoods close to the university campus. The Sigma Chi fraternity house, 722 South Willson Avenue, was designed in the popular Contemporary style. The facade features a pair of two-story wings facing the street, both topped by shallow-pitched gable roofs with projecting support beams. The dominant left wing has a plain brick wall broken by a vertical band containing simple two-pane windows on the basement, first, and second levels, with textured brick panels filling the wall between the windows. A narrow band of windows fills the gable end. The right wing contains the main entry to the left of a bank of floor-to-ceiling windows on both stories. Pairs of slender columns support the wide projecting gable roof as well as second story balconies which wrap around to the south end.

A more formal design is found in the two-story Pi Beta Phi sorority house, 1304 South 5th Avenue. Its symmetrical facade has four slender brick columns which rise two full stories to support the projecting flat roof. The center bay has an enclosed entry on the first story and a balcony on the second story. The two side bays have plain brick walls divided by two vertical lines of decorative concrete blocks. The symmetrical side walls alternate plain brick sections with window sections. Each of the latter features panels of decorative concrete blocks set between the casement window on each story.

- 45 -

Conclusion

Public Bozeman’s heritage has been shaped by many factors over nearly a century and a half of growth. Since the beginning, its development has been tied to transportation, from its location along a trail to the arrival of the railroad and then the interstate highway system. Montana State College, now Montana State University, has provided a major source of employment for city residents over many decades and the city, in turn, has adapted to offer living quarters for faculty and students as well as businesses catering to this population. Bozeman’s relationship with the surrounding agricultural region has stimulated the growth of industries from flour mills to pea canneries. The city’s location, so close to Yellowstone National Park and other popular attractions, has boosted the tourism sector of the economy. The growth of Bozeman over the years is also tied to larger national events and trends, such as the boom in population and growth following World War II. All of these combine to form Bozeman’s unique history which can be seen in its architectural heritage. The preservation and interpretation of this heritage can help us understand the present in relation to our past.

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Endnotes

i Phyllis Smith, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley: A History (Guilford, Connecticut: The Globe Pequot Press, 2002), 13-19; Merrill G. Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage: A Report of Progress, 1805-1976 (Bozeman: Gallatin County Bicentennial Publication, 1976), 2. ii Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage, 2-10; Smith, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley, 46-50. iii Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage, 4-6; Smith, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley, 51-58. iv Minutes, Claim Association of the Upper East Gallatin, August 9, 1864 – January 21, 1865. v Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage, 6, 34; E. Lina Houston, Early History of Gallatin County (Bozeman: Sons and Daughters of the Pioneers of Gallatin County, 1933), 19-20, 27-29. vi Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage, 6, 90; Houston, Early History of Gallatin County, 19-20. vii Houston, Early History of Gallatin County, 25. viii Ibid., 54. ix Analysis based on photographic evidence. x Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage, 6, 10; Smith, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley, 101-105; George W. Flanders, Jr., “A History of the Flanders Saw Mill,” 9-10, Manuscript File 1104, Special Collections, Montana State University Library, Bozeman. xi The Journals of Lewis and Clark at the Three Forks: Clark’s Journey Across the Gallatin Valley 1805- 1806, McGill Museum Publication No. 3 (Bozeman: Montana State College, 1964), 6. xii Analysis based on photographic evidence. xiii In 1872, the Avant Courier (established in 1871) announced the need for 800,000 bricks for construction of several business blocks on Main Street, including those of Colonel Black (218-228 East Main) and Frank Harper, a blacksmith (237 East Main). Although William Tracy’s brickyard was making bricks as rapidly as possible, it was unable to meet the growing demand. Editor W. W. Alderson urged other brickmakers to establish in Montana. xiv Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage, 26. xv Houston, Early History of Gallatin County, 26. xvi Ibid., 28-31; Smith, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley, 96-97. xvii Houston, Early History of Gallatin County, 32-35. xviii Ibid., 43, 51. xix Avant Courier, April 4, 1872. xx “Bozeman and its Surroundings,” The Rockies Illustrated Magazine, vol. 4, no. 9 (September 1892), 153- 170; Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage, 90-93. xxi Houston, Early History of Gallatin County, 26-29. xxii Matt W. Alderson, Bozeman: A Guide to its Places of Recreation and a Synopsis of its Superior Natural Advantages, Industries, and Opportunities (Bozeman: Alderson and Son, Publishers, 1883), 53. xxiii Avant Courier, September 5, 1891. Evidence is inconclusive on the question of the exact structure which burned in the Story Mill fire. The 1882 structure may have been replaced by other frame buildings before the fire occurred, or the 1882 mill may have been located at a different site from the structures which burned. xxiv “Bozeman and its Surroundings,” The Rockies Illustrated Magazine, 153-170; “First Lights of Bozeman Prove Quite a Curiosity,” Bozeman Daily Chronicle, December 27, 1970; W. W. Livingston, “Electricity Power in Gallatin County,” The Coast, vol. 15, no. 6 (June 1908), 430-431; Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage, 26-34; Bill and Doris Whithorn, Photo History of Livingston-Bozeman Coal Country (Livingston: Livingston Enterprise, n.d.); Ira Swett, “Montana’s Trolleys III,” Interurbans Magazine (1970), 26-43. xxv “The Gallatin Valley, Montana,” The Coast, vol. 15, no. 6 (June 1908), 478-479; R. L. Polk & Co., of Montana, Bozeman City and Gallatin County Directory, 1910-11 (Helena: R. L. Polk & Co., 1910), 378. City directories are hereinafter referred to as Polk Directory. xxvi Ibid., 426. xxvii Ibid., 388.

- 47 - xxviii Ibid., 426. xxix Polk Directory, 1910-11: 417, 1922: 244, 1931: 282, 1940: 263, 1950: 281. xxx Bozeman Republican-Courier, January 19, 1906 through March 16, 1906. xxxi The Gallatin Valley and Bozeman, Montana (Bozeman: Bozeman Chronicle, c. 1906), 7. xxxii The Radford American Homes: 100 House Plans (Riverside, Illinois: The Radford Architectural Company, 1903), 3-4. xxxiii Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform (New York: Vintage Books, 1955), 5. xxxiv Robert G. Dunbar, “The Economic Development of the Gallatin Valley,” Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 4 (October 1956), 119-121. xxxv Michael P. Malone and Richard B. Roeder, Montana: A History of Two Centuries (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1976), 214. xxxvi Polk Directory, 1922: 258, 1931: 261, 1940: 249, 1950: 270, 1961: 61, 1970: 47-48; Sanborn Map Company, Map of Bozeman, Gallatin Co., Mont. (New York: Sanborn Map Co., 1912), 2; 1927: 2. Such maps are hereinafter referred to as Sanborn Map. xxxvii Merrill G. Burlingame, A History: Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana (Bozeman: Office of Information, Montana State University, 1968), 133. xxxviii Summary based on Agricultural Experiment Station bulletins, other U.S.D.A. and Land-Grant College Association publications; and Gordon Scoville, “Anti-Democracy College: The Culture of Organized Social Machinery and the Leadership of the Land-Grant Agricultural colleges in the Progressive Era,” Ed.D. dissertation in progress, Montana State University. xxxix Burlingame, A History: Montana State University; Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage, 98. xl Michael P. Malone, “The Gallatin Canyon and the Tides of History,” Montana, The Magazine of Western History, vol. 23, no. 3 (July 1973), 11. xli Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage, 27. xlii Nancy F. Renk, “Off to the Lakes: Summer Tourism in Northern Idaho, 1883-1940” (M.A. thesis, University of Idaho, 1992), 100, 104, 110. xliii Polk Directory, 1910-11: 380, 382-383, 385, 1922: 218-220, 222-223. xliv Renk, “Off to the Lakes,” 113, 122. xlv Ibid., 127-131. xlvi Fred F. Willson, job list, collection of Bill Grabow; Sanborn Map, 1943: 7; Polk Directory, 1931: 301, 1940: 275, 1950: 292, 1956: 27. xlvii Fred F. Willson, job list, collection of Bill Grabow. xlviii Burlingame, Gallatin County’s Heritage, 34. xlix Kingston Heath, “A Dying Heritage: One Room Schools of Gallatin County, Montana,” in Perspective in Vernacular Architecture, Camille Wells, ed., (Annapolis: Vernacular Architecture Forum, 1982), 201- 216. l Committee for Opposition of Courthouse Bonds, “Extra! The Flood of Fallacy Dissected and Exposed” (Belgrade: The Belgrade Journal, c. 1933). li Malone and Roeder, Montana: A History of Two Centuries, 226-227. lii Joseph Kinsey Howard, “The Decline and Fall of Burton K. Wheeler,” in The Montana Past: An Anthology, Michael P. Malone and Richard B. Roeder, eds. (Missoula: University of Montana Press, 1970), 23. liii William D. Rowley, M. L. Wilson and the Campaign for the Domestic Allotment (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1970), 278. liv Burlingame, A History: Montana State University, 141-142; Roland R. Renne, A Preliminary Report of the Butte Economic Survey (The City of Butte, 1939). lv Smith, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley, 248-250; Bozeman Daily Chronicle, January 1, 1932; Polk Directory, 1931: 273, 1940: 257. lvi Bozeman Daily Chronicle, January 1, 1932; Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Centennial Edition, Part II, March 28, 1983, 15; Smith, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley, 278; Kenneth W. Bailey, Marketing and Pricing of Milk and Dairy Products in the United States (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1997): 142. lvii Polk Directory, 1931: 275, 301, 1940: 259, 275; Sanborn Map, 1943: 18, 30. lviii Burlingame, A History: Montana State University, 100. lix Ibid., 84-89. lx Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Centennial Edition, Part III, March 29, 1983, 6.

- 48 - lxi Ibid., Part I, March 27, 1983, 14. lxii William H. Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 117-118. lxiii Ibid., 123, 126. lxiv Polk Directory, 1950: 12, 1956: xii, 1961: vii, 1965: xii, 1970: xvi; Smith, 272, 287. lxv Smith, 299. lxvi Virginia and Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984), 477-478. lxvii The dates for these homes were found in the Bozeman/Gallatin County ---. lxviii McAlester, 477, 479. lxix Dates from --- lxx McAlester, 481. lxxi Ibid., 477, 482. lxxii Polk Directory, 1970: 97. lxxiii Richard Longstreth, The Buildings of Main Street: A Guide to American Commercial Architecture (Washington, D.C.: The Preservation Press, 1987), 126-127. lxxiv The building permit, issued on 8-15-67, provided the names of both the architect as well as the builder, Emil Martel and Son. lxxv Chafe, The Unfinished Journey, 119; personal communication, Jon Axline to Mark Hufstetler, November 1, 2007. lxxvi Polk Directory, 1950: 277-278, 1961: 77-78, 1970: 65-66. lxxvii Polk Directory, 1950: 292, 1961: 90, 1970: 79. lxxviii Polk Directory, 1950: 271, 1970: 51. lxxix Smith, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley, 248-251; Polk Directory, 1950:265-266, 1970: 40. lxxx Smith, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley, 278. lxxxi Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Centennial Edition, Part IV, March 30, 1983, 9; Burlingame, A History: Montana State University, 185-186. lxxxii Dunbar, “The Economic Development of the Gallatin Valley,” 122. lxxxiii Robert Rydell, Jeffrey Stafford, and Pierce Mullen, In the People’s Interest: A Centennial History of Montana State University (Bozeman: Montana State University Foundation, 1992), 59-51, 64. lxxxiv Ibid., 62-63; Burlingame, A History: Montana State University, 185-186. lxxxv Rydell et al., In the People’s Interest, 309-310. lxxxvi Ibid., 208, 309. lxxxvii Ibid., 309-310.

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