The North Elevation neighborhood’s “smooth graded roads” and building lots with space for a backyard and a garage likely attracted Argyle and Jessie Scott to build this Craftsman style home in 1914. Inside, rich wood floors, substantial mahogany columns between the living and dining rooms, and a brick fireplace framed by built-in bookcases exemplify signature Craftsman details. Argyle managed the Billings Land and Irrigation Co. and was chairman of the Billings Chamber of Commerce’s Good Roads Committee, which advocated for improved roads and encouraged automobile travel. In 1915, to promote travel along the Yellowstone Trail, Argyle drove his six-cylinder Chalmers from Billings to Columbus in record time. He was one of many drivers across the country who relayed a letter from Chicago’s mayor to Seattle’s mayor in less time than it would take to deliver it by train. By 1924, barber Frank Key and his wife Birdie had purchased the home. Frank died suddenly in 1925 and by 1932, their daughter Frances and her husband Wilbur Lenhart, also a barber, had moved in with Birdie. The Lenharts remained in residence until the early 1970s.

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Access to three transcontinental railroads and a booming rural population led Omaha, Nebraska-based Western Newspaper Union (WNU) to build this reinforced concrete and brick warehouse in 1917. Local architect Curtis Oehme designed the Western Commercial style building, which features multicolored brick, recessed brick panels, and diamond-shaped inlays on the vertical pilasters. In the late 1890s, Western Newspaper Union revolutionized rural journalism by supplying "ready-print" to small local newspapers with limited equipment and workers. Ready-print plates were premade newspaper printing plates containing national and international news, fiction, photographs, and advertisements. Rural weekly newspapers subscribed to the service, which allowed them to offer a wider variety of inside page content. In the 1920s, WNU supplied plates to about seventy-five papers in Montana and Wyoming. In 1922, WNU added an east-side addition and merged their paper stocks with the Carpenter Paper Company. Six Carpenter brothers had started the business in 1887 in a remodeled livery stable in Des Moines, Iowa. By 1900, they grew it into one of the nation’s largest paper suppliers. The company moved to Omaha in 1907 and expanded to Billings in 1917. By 1929, Carpenter had added many new salesmen and warehouse workers and branched into flooring products and Victrola record players. That year, the company purchased the building from WNU, which remained a tenant until 1940. In 1951, Carpenter added a thirty-five-thousand square-foot warehouse addition designed by Cushing & Terrell. The Carpenter Paper Company continued to provide wholesale paper products to eastern Montana and northern Wyoming until 1996.

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The Reverend Benjamin F. Shuart founded the First Congregational Church in May 1882, only two months after Northern Pacific Railroad investors established Billings. Since then, the church has served as a place of worship and a stalwart advocate for civil rights, human dignity, and social justice. In November 1883, carpenters replaced a temporary church building with a permanent, Tudor-Revival style brick building. During construction, Shuart raised funds to build the city’s first public school and organized the Billings Literary Society (a precursor to the Billings Public Library). In the early 1900s, the church promoted women’s suffrage efforts and provided food, clothing, and medical aid to Billings residents. In 1918, the church became an emergency hospital during the influenza pandemic. To accommodate growing membership, church leaders commissioned a north-side Parish House wing in 1928, adding classrooms and assembly spaces. An education wing followed in 1951, and the current Modern style addition replaced the 1883 church and part of the 1928 addition in 1957. Church efforts during the Great Depression addressed poverty, and after World War II, refugee resettlement. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the congregation created affordable housing, opened a childcare center, and offered food programs for the elderly and disabled. Fighting racism and hate speech in 1993, the congregation encouraged Billings residents to display paper menorahs in their windows to support the Jewish community and all victims of hate crimes. Thousands participated, attracting worldwide attention and inspiring the national “Not in Our Town” movement. First Congregational Church remains the oldest operating congregational church in Montana.

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Ward Nye, superintendent of Billings Public Schools, had this classic Craftsman style home built on speculation in 1916. It is likely he chose the design from a house plan catalog such as Sears, Roebuck & Co. The home’s exposed rafter ends, prominent knee braces, and small window in the gable end match the Sears “Winona bungalow” pattern. Nye sold the home to Frank B. and Florence Reynolds in 1918. Frank, a respected lawyer, became associate justice of the Montana Supreme Court in 1921 but fell ill and died in May 1922. Thomas and Laverne Molesworth purchased the home in 1923. Thomas managed the Rowe Furniture Company and Laverne was a homemaker. Thomas, who studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago, learned the furniture business in Billings and in 1932 moved the family to Cody, Wyoming, to open the Shoshone Furniture Company. He gained fame with his distinctly Western “cowboy” furniture style, which incorporated hides, animal horns, and knotty tree trunks. Thomas's most famous commissions include Coca-Cola magnate Robert Woodruff’s TE Ranch, publishing mogul Moses Annenberg’s Ranch A, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s den.

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Kenneth A. and Marise H. Connelly bought this house in 1922 when it was new. The home’s design suggests that it came from a pattern book, a catalog of mass-produced architectural plans widely available at lumber yards or through a building contractor. The first-floor clapboard siding, second-floor shingles, and overhanging eaves represent Craftsman style hallmarks, while the interior layout reflects the American Foursquare floorplan. Kenneth and Marise met in France during World War I. Kenneth was a second lieutenant and Marise was a secretary in the Quartermaster Corps, the U.S. Army's logistics branch. After the war, they married in New York City and settled in Billings where Kenneth sold home appliances and farm implements for his family’s business, F. B. Connelly Co. Marise stayed home to raise three children and helped design the company’s new General Electric appliance “salon” in 1929. The Connellys sold the home to newlyweds Reverend Paul and Milda Freiburger in 1930. Paul was pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church and Milda was the church secretary for more than forty years. They raised three children in the home before selling it in 1937.

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This high, rocky outcropping above the confluence of the Yellowstone River and Alkali Creek is central to interpreting Billings area history. For millennia, the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation used this area for camping and spiritual activities such as fasting, vision quests, and burials. William Clark and members of the Corps of Discovery passed nearby in 1806 on their way back to the Missouri River, signaling change and conflict as Euro-Americans encroached into Indigenous homelands. Piikuni (Blackfeet) warriors killed a group of fur trappers near here in 1823, a smallpox epidemic decimated a nearby Apsáalooke camp, and the Baker Fight five miles northeast ignited tensions between the U.S. Army and numerous Indigenous nations in 1872. Despite bloody battles between the Army and Indian nations to the south in 1876-77, a group of Bozeman businessmen established a town near this site in 1877. Although they strategically located it along the future Northern Pacific Railway route, they named it Coulson after the steamboat company, the Coulson Packet Line. Residents soon established their town cemetery here next to The Place of the Skulls, an Apsáalooke burial site. When the Northern Pacific platted Billings to the west in 1882, Coulson residents moved to Billings, leaving only the cemetery to mark its existence. Ignatius D. O’Donnell, the influential Billings civic leader, irrigation expert, and community historian, later became owner of the Coulson cemetery. He preserved it and built a river stone obelisk in 1920 to mark the burials. O’Donnell later deeded the cemetery to Billings, and a system of parks and trails has since developed from it.

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Architect Glen C. McAllister and wife Beatrice built this classic Craftsman style bungalow in June 1915. The home’s full front porch with square, tapered columns and shingled dormer are typical stylistic elements. Glen worked with prominent local architect John G. Link before starting his own firm. During his prolific career Glen designed bungalows, mansions, and civic and commercial buildings in Billings, Sheridan, Wyoming, and Los Angeles, California. It is likely he designed this and other area homes. In 1920, civil engineer Ralph Fifield and wife Ola purchased the home. Ralph—known as the “dean of Montana engineers”—had worked for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, supervising construction of the Huntley Project, a massive irrigation effort to transform 35,000 acres of arid sagebrush prairie into productive farmland. After moving to this home, Ralph operated an irrigation consulting firm and, in 1936, became district supervisor for the Works Projects Administration (WPA). Ola stayed home to raise their three children, hosted Bridge Club parties, and was President of the Masonic De Molay Mother’s Circle Club. The Fifields remained in residence until 1942.

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A low-pitched gable roof, open front porch, exposed roof rafters, and decorative braces under large overhanging eaves make this a classic Craftsman style bungalow. Robert and Genevieve Stong and one-year-old Robert Jr. moved into the home shortly after its construction circa 1915. The family welcomed two more sons and lived here into the 1950s. A lawyer, Robert served as Yellowstone County attorney, city alderman, district judge, and president of the Yellowstone Bar Association. Genevieve was a prominent clubwoman, active in Republican politics, and president of the Billings chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary. Robert Jr. was living at home and working for the Montana Power Company when the U.S. entered World War II. He became a tank driver with the Second Armored Division of the 66th Armored Regiment, fighting in five major battles, including the Battle of the Bulge. Younger brother John served in the U.S. Navy. Both were honorably discharged in 1945. In 1955, Aileen Bohlinger purchased the home, remaining here into the 1980s. Her son John served as lieutenant governor from 2005 to 2013.

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“If a Mansion in Heaven for the Soul, Why Not a Palace on Earth for the Body” read a 1919 advertisement for the Billings Communal Mausoleum. Intrigued by the “opportunity … to sleep through eternity … secure against the ravages of time,” over two-hundred people subscribed to the project before construction began in 1920. The Montana Mausoleum Company promoted crypt burials as an opportunity for ordinary people to be treated in death like “kings … the favored rich and the honored heroes of all ages.” Promotional material promised “no decay” and “absolutely sanitary desiccation” in an “indestructible” monument of concrete, steel, bronze, and marble for the same price as a regular burial. Noted architect John G. Link, who was later entombed within, designed the 330-crypt mausoleum, incorporating the Montana Mausoleum Company’s patented ventilation system and reinforced concrete construction. The new, inexpensive construction material made building large, multiple-crypt facilities economically feasible. Link’s austere, classical design—which featured a symmetrical cruciform (cross-shaped) plan, barrel-vaulted roof, and columned portico—reflected the mausoleum’s promise of permanence. The stained-glass window memorializes the forty-nine Yellowstone County soldiers, and one Red Cross nurse, killed in World War I. Born of the Progressive Era’s commitment to sanitation and community improvement, communal mausoleums grew in popularity during the 1910s. Over the years, the mausoleum fell into disrepair; the mausoleum company had provided only a fraction of the $25,000 endowment promised for perpetual maintenance. In 1980, Landmark, Inc., a local preservation group took up the cause, raising thousands of dollars to restore the historic building.

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In 1920, the City of Billings purchased 32.5 acres of rural, largely treeless land, anticipating correctly that a neighborhood would grow around it. They began clearing sagebrush and planting trees, and a year later, the parks board contracted with twenty-five-year-old Dorothy Gray to create a master plan for the park, which in 1922 was named to honor Montana pioneers. A Billings native, Gray had graduated from Cornell University with a specialization in landscape architecture. She was a vocal advocate for public commons and believed that parks could nurture civic pride and foster morality by providing wholesome recreational opportunities. Her plan for Pioneer Park included natural, open spaces for picnicking; winding walkways through wooded areas; playgrounds; an open-air amphitheater; tennis courts; a sand pit; a wading pool, upgraded in 1993; and athletic fields. It also called for damming Crooked Creek to create a lake, a replica pioneer log cabin for use as a museum and meeting place, and a swimming pool. While lack of funding doomed the most ambitious parts of her plan, much of the park’s design reflects Gray’s original vision. In 1932—to celebrate Billings’ “semicentennial”—the city unveiled a commemorative plaque recognizing area pioneers (a second memorial was added in 2003). Pioneer Park saw additional improvements in 1936, courtesy of the Works Progress Administration, a Great Depression-era program created to put unemployed people to work. A firehall, built in 1948, became home to the parks department in 1960 and, later, a recreation and event space, filling a need first identified by Dorothy Gray in 1921.

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Clinton Warner and his wife Inez bought this and the adjacent lot to the west in 1919 for $1,500 from the North Elevation Company and built this Colonial Revival style home. The deed stipulated that any residence built on the lot “shall not cost less than $2,500 and be of modern design.” Clinton owned the Northwest Fixture Co., a regional supplier of commercial cabinetry, until 1953, then became a devoted cattle rancher until his retirement in 1967. Clinton and Inez raised five daughters in the compact yet stylish two-bedroom home. While smaller than others in the neighborhood, it featured a spacious yard and a “tuck-under,” or integrated, ground-floor garage, accessed from the rear of the home. Most North Elevation houses had detached garages at the back of the lot, but this home’s location, hugging the alley on an uphill slope, required an innovative approach. Cars were important to the Warners. Gladys, their second-oldest daughter, usually drove the short distance to Billings High School (now Lincoln Center). The Warners split the lot in 1929 but remained in residence here until 1967.

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When David Fratt died in 1912, he left his extensive land and livestock holdings to his wife Kate. Kate sold his cattle company and invested the proceeds, becoming one of Montana’s wealthiest women. A devout Catholic and dedicated philanthropist, Kate purchased twelve lots near St. Patrick’s Church for a parochial school in 1917. She died a year later and, among bequests to St. Patrick’s Church, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Billings Poly Technic (now Rocky Mountain College), and the YWCA, she left $100,000 to build and maintain a new Catholic school. The noted Montana architectural firm Link and Haire designed the “entirely fire proof” school in blond “iron spot” brick. Paying “particular attention … to lighting and ventilation,” Link and Haire’s plan provided “for a complete change of air in all rooms every 10 minutes.” The design paid tribute to the Catholic Church’s history and the building’s educational mission with a seamless blend of two architectural styles. The school’s Italian Renaissance Revival details include a low-pitched, hipped, tile roof; deep, overhanging eaves; and decorative concrete brackets. The Collegiate Gothic entrance, with its steep gable roof and concrete pinnacle, adds a vertical element while incorporating an architectural style often seen on university campuses. Sister Mary Dolores of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth served as principal when the school opened to 170 students in 1919. In 1950, a record seven-hundred students attended the school. The Kate Fratt Memorial School closed in 2017, and in 2020, a historically sensitive rehabilitation transformed it into condominiums.

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Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and a National Monument in 2001, Pompeys Pillar is nationally significant for the hundreds of historical markings, pictographs, petroglyphs, and inscriptions on its walls. These include the signature of Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. On their return from the Pacific, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark decided to split up to explore the country more thoroughly. Sacagawea and her eighteen-month-old son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (nicknamed “Pompey”), traveled with Clark. On July 25, 1806, Clark and his party arrived at this prominent rock formation, visible from the Yellowstone River. Clark stopped to climb the tower, which he named after young Jean Baptiste. He also etched his name and the date in the soft sandstone. His signature joined numerous petroglyphs—carved images of animals, shields, and other signs—created by American Indians who made their home here, including the Crow (Apsáalooke). One Apsáalooke name for this sacred site is Iishbíiammaache, “Where the Mountain Lion Lies.” Because the formation is a recognizable landmark located at a natural river crossing, the Apsáalooke often came here to hunt bison, trade with their allies, the Nez Perce and the Shoshones, and perform rituals. In 1805, French-Canadian fur trader Francois Antoine Larocque visited the site. On the sandstone tower he saw “sketched with red earth a battle between three people on horseback and three others on foot.” Later Euro-Americans also carved their names into the rock, including crew members of the steamboat Josephine in 1875 and infantrymen commanded by Colonel John Gibbon in 1876.

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A National Historic Landmark since 1964, Pictograph Cave provides an important window into the lives of Montana’s early hunter-gatherers. It is equally significant to the history of Treasure State archaeology. People used Pictograph Cave—and the neighboring Middle and Ghost Caves—for at least five thousand years. Ancestors of the Apsáalooke (Crow) tribe, which has lived in the region since at least 1700, likely created some of the pictographs; forebears of other tribes also left their mark. Early inhabitants painted over 100 images on the walls. The earliest painting—of a turtle—is over two thousand years old. More recent paintings, approximately two hundred years old, depict a flintlock gun and riders on horseback. European-imported guns and horses made their way to the Northern Plains through the tribes’ vast trade network. Other evidence of that trade network includes the fragment of a 1370-year-old coiled basket, which resembles those made in the Great Basin. Thousands of other artifacts include stone, bone, and wood hunting and gathering tools, pottery fragments, plant remains, and jewelry. The caves’ archaeological excavation began in 1936, during the dawn of Montana archaeology. The Works Progress Administration funded the excavation as part of a New Deal program to boost employment during the Great Depression. Amateur archaeologist Oscar Lewis directed the project until 1941, when professional archaeologist William Mulloy took charge of the excavation. In 1951 he published the first definitive archaeological report about the Northwestern Plains, mostly based on materials found at the caves. Recognizing the site’s scientific and cultural importance, Montana added Pictograph and Ghost Caves to its state park system in 1969.

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Built at the height of the “bungalow craze,” this circa 1915 residence features the open eaves, exposed rafters, and triangular knee braces that characterize the Craftsman style. The home’s size (five rooms) made it affordable to finish the interior with modern plumbing, hardwood floors, and other desirable features. Early residents include civil engineer Winifred Record, who lived here in 1916 and 1917, and Edward and Edith Parker, in residence from 1918 to 1923. Edward was vice president of Montana Ranches, a real estate company that marketed hundreds of thousands of acres to Midwestern farmers. When the Parkers sold the home in 1923, they placed an ad in the Billings Gazette touting its “bath, sleeping porch, choice neighborhood, attractive lawn, trees and garden.” Martin Depner, who owned New Method Shoe Repair, and his wife Katherine purchased the residence. When their family of eight outgrew it in 1930, they advertised the house for sale for $5,500. Reflecting the automobiles’ growing cultural significance, their ad highlighted the property’s double car garage as a selling point.

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Billings rancher and businessman James R. Conway built this handsome, brick, double-front store with an upstairs boardinghouse in 1900. Conway opened the Crystal Saloon in the west half and J. C. Staffek ran a cigar shop in the east half. The two businesses were among many saloons, cigar stores, and cafes located near the tracks that served railroad, warehouse, and factory workers as well as homesteaders, farmers, and ranchers passing through. While the first-floor façade has seen many alterations, the paired arched windows, rusticated stone sills, and dentil (tooth) pattern masonry on the second floor still reflect the Romanesque Revival style. During the early 1900s, this neighborhood hosted a large Asian immigrant community. The Shong Hoi Noodle Parlor opened here in 1914, and in 1919 Japanese immigrants George Taketa and Nabikichi Morimoto opened a cafe. The building’s longest operating business, the Oasis Bar, served a rowdy crowd from 1954 to the early 2000s. Although this area suffered a bad reputation from the 1920s until the end of the twentieth century, revitalization efforts in the early 2000s have preserved many buildings and attracted new businesses.

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Samuel and Daisy McDowell built this Craftsmanstyle bungalow for $4,000 in 1913. Much of its original character remains today, embodied in the clapboard and shingle siding, front porch, and exposed rafters and knee braces in the eaves. Samuel and his brother Edward ran a successful bookstore and stationery shop downtown. While living here, the McDowells had one daughter, Alice. She later became one of Billings’ early female pilots, taught aviation at Billings Polytechnic, and was the only female member of the Billings Civilian Air Patrol. Anthony and Frances Donovan purchased the house in 1918. Anthony was manager of the Advanced Rumley Threshing Machine Co. and Frances stayed at home with their two daughters. In early 1923, retired Musselshell Valley ranchers Harry and Lilias Drum bought the house. Harry was a well-known, pioneer-era cowboy who tended cattle for Granville Stuart in the 1880s before starting his own ranch. In Billings, he became registrar at the U.S. Land Office and was an active member of the Eastern Montana Pioneers. Lilias often held Poetry Club meetings in the house. The Drums lived here until 1930.

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The full-width front porch, low-pitched roof with wide overhangs, and prominent corbelled (stepped) brick chimney are key elements of this 1913 Craftsman bungalow. Multi-pane sidelights flanking the door match the transom atop the main window and dormer windows, unifying the façade. In the 1910s, middle-class families like that of real estate agent J. O. Terrell and wife Prudence sought out the North Elevation neighborhood for its modern homes, parklike setting, fenced backyards, and one-car garages. The Terrells lived here from 1913 to 1926. By the 1950s, the neighborhood attracted young families just starting out. In 1951, Bob and Hattie Martin purchased this house for $18,000 calling 1111 home for over fifty years. Bob was a traveling salesman and Hattie raised four children and worked as a school nurse. When her children went to college, she went too, earning her nursing degree at Montana State University-Bozeman in 1970. Hattie became county director of nurses, local Red Cross director, volunteered for a month in 1975 at Camp Pendleton nursing Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees, and helped establish the Yellowstone County Adult Resource Alliance.

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Lawyer Arthur J. Cunningham and his wife Edna built this remarkably well-preserved Craftsman style bungalow in 1915 for $3,300. The house retains nearly all of its original materials, including the narrow wood clapboard siding and wide wood trim, open front porch with tapered porch columns, and irregular-pattern wood shingles in the gable ends. Cunningham was a bankruptcy lawyer with the firm of Cunningham and Waldo. In 1922, he ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for state representative. By 1925, the Cunningham family had moved on and John and Jennie Bridenbaugh occupied the home. Jennie was a nurse and, with John, raised five children here, including one adopted daughter. Jennie was active in the Methodist Church and many public health charities and was state president of the American Association of University Women. In 1952, she was selected as Montana Mother of the Year. John was a radiologist who introduced the then newfangled practice of x-ray diagnosis and radiation therapy to Billings. His practice with partner Dr. Arthur J. Movius prospered and in 1939 became the Billings Clinic.

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Civil engineer Bill Lowe designed and built this house for his family circa 1940. The modest-looking home has several features more typically found in high-style homes. These include the clay tile roof, decorative chimney caps, and a bow window, placed to take advantage of the corner lot. The multi-pane casement windows echo the windows of its grander architect-designed neighbors. Bill and Connie Lowe lived here until 1951 except during Bill’s twenty-two months in the Navy during World War II. On the family’s return to Billings, Connie resumed her role as a society hostess and active church and club woman. Although she had an education degree, she never taught as the school district did not hire married women. Bill became a principal in the construction firm responsible for many projects at MSU-Billings (then called Eastern Montana College), including Cisel, Apsaruke, and Rimrock Halls and the Physical Education Building. When the family outgrew this one-story home, the Lowes found another corner lot on which to build, where they constructed a larger, two-story home based on the same design.

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Austin and Hattie North established the North Elevation Subdivision in 1905. Within walking distance of McKinley Elementary and Billings’ downtown, “the Elevation” was a commonsense extension for the Yellowstone River Valley’s fastest growing city. The Elevation Company, owned by the Norths promoted lots with panoramic views of the city and promises of living near “the best families in Billings.” Early promotional literature emphasized the subdivision’s walkability—including its concrete sidewalks—as well as a potential streetcar system that would link the neighborhood to downtown. By 1913, the neighborhood’s promoters had embraced the automobile, advertising the subdivision’s “fine auto drives” and its miles of “smooth graded roads.” With the construction of the “new” St. Vincent’s Hospital, Deaconess Hospital (now Billings Clinic), and Eastern Montana Normal School (now MSU-Billings) in the 1920s, the neighborhood became home to teachers and doctors, as well as civic leaders. The current North Elevation Historic District is defined by Twelfth Avenue to the north, Ninth Avenue to the south, Thirty-Second Street to the west and the alley behind Thirtieth Street to the east. There are over 100 contributing homes in the district and over 60 of them are in the Craftsman style. These homes are identified by their wide overhanging eaves, projecting rafters, bands of windows, and the use of natural materials. There are also two contributing commercial properties within the district.

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Wayne and Ethel Gordon’s 1939 home is one of two Cape Cod style homes in the North Elevation Historic District. The steep side-gable roof, gabled dormers, and elegant front door entablature are key stylistic elements. After completing medical school and then teaching at the University of Chicago, Dr. Wayne Gordon became one of the first internists at Deaconess Hospital (now Billings Clinic) in 1936. Wayne was Deaconess chief of staff for many years and organized annual conferences as governor of the American College of Physicians Wyoming/Montana chapter. He and wife Ethel raised two boys here and were active members in the community and the First Baptist Church. Ethel was president of the Montana Baptist Woman’s Society, and board vice president of the Billings YWCA. In 1957, Ethel and Wayne founded the Friendship House, a charity serving minority children and families that still thrives today. Their son Roger and family moved into the home in 1959 when Wayne became professor of medicine, and Ethel, supervisor of photography, at Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. The house remained in the Gordon family until 1980.

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Built between 1923 and 1927, this building—now a triplex but originally a duplex—is a relatively late addition to the neighborhood. Several elements distinguish it, including its placement set back from the street. The choice of stucco siding—a fashionable modern material in the 1920s—flat roof, and stepped parapet (wall along the roof’s edge) reference the Spanish Eclectic style. Built for the automobile age, each three-room duplex came with its own garage. One garage faced the alley and the other (converted into a third apartment by the 1950s) faced the street. Early residents include trucker John Galusha and wife Barbara in 1930 and carpenter Samuel Moe in 1932. The apartments rented for $28 per month in the 1930s, or about $550 in 2019 dollars. In 1946, widow Mary Gore and her son Alfred, a tile-layer, purchased the property. Mary lived here from 1947 until her death in 1954. During her occupancy, other tenants included a school principal, Northern Pacific Railroad employees, and Mary’s son Alfred and his wife Ernestine. Alfred and Ernestine owned the building until 1980.

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Young middle-class professional families flocked to the North Elevation neighborhood after 1905 in search of modern homes in a quiet suburban setting. Rows of welcoming Craftsman bungalows with wide front porches and simple decorative details like knee braces and exposed rafter tails in the eaves became the dominant neighborhood style. Railway mail service clerk Harold Madson and his wife Winnifred, a former librarian, lived here between 1909 and 1922. By 1930, bridge engineer Frank Robbins and wife Gladys, a stenographer, lived here with their two boys and a teenage maid. A third boy was born in 1934. Frank lost an arm in a bridge construction accident in 1925, but he continued to work for the Montana Highway Commission for many years. In her spare time, Gladys organized study groups on liberal arts topics for the local Delphian Society’s Delta chapter, a national organization that promoted the education of women. Through many owners, the home has retained its original character and remains a fine example of the Craftsman style.

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