German immigrant William Grabow settled in the Livingston area in the early 1880s. There he established a flour mill and helped introduce the manufacture of brick. Between 1908 and 1911, William built this prominent corner building, where he and his wife, Elizabeth, established the Grabow Hotel in 1911. It was soon recognized as one of Montana’s leading hostelries. Guests at the Grabow enjoyed “every known convenience,” including hot and cold running water in each of the thirty rooms and a fine European style restaurant. William died at the height of the 1918 flu epidemic and Elizabeth, six feet tall and eminently capable, ran the business until 1936 when the hotel fell victim to the Great Depression. The once-popular hotel was sold at sheriff’s sale and later converted to offices and apartments. In 1998, William and Elizabeth’s grandchildren, sisters Patricia Grabow and Bonny Grabow Milligan, brought the building back into the family and began its restoration. They burned the 1936 sale document, the source of three generations of family grief, over the graves of their grandparents.
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