The Hammond Arcade Building is an outstanding example of Art Deco commercial architecture, with its polychrome brick work, concrete column construction, and original wraparound metal awning. Its interior arcade, which never has been remodeled, is unusual for the period. On this site had stood another building owned by A. B. Hammond, built in the 1890s and destroyed by fire in the early 1930s. Receiving insurance money, the Hammond Building Company planned to replace the building with a two-story structure, but financial constraints during those early years of the Great Depression called for a smaller edifice. Still, work on the Hammond Arcade brought much-needed employment to Missoula construction workers, and this is one of very few commercial buildings that arose here during the 1930s. From its completion in 1934, the Arcade had been home to a variety of professional offices and businesses, including the Missoula Drug Company that had been located in the original, burned Hammond Building.
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