Recognizing the need for a luxury hotel, Bozeman businessmen joined together in a collaboration that spanned nearly a century. Culminating in the opening of the Hotel Baxter on March 2, 1929, the effort involved several generations of dedicated citizens including Bozeman resident Eugene Graf, the Baxter’s architect Fred F. Willson, the Bozeman Community Hotel Corporation, and approximately 250 community members. Rancher/entrepreneur George Baxter financed the final $50,000 and named the hotel after his father. Willson’s design blends Art Deco style with modern and classical references. The stunning grand triple-arched entry duplicates and doubles in smaller scale on the seventh floor façade. Hotel Baxter originally featured seventy-six guest rooms, eight apartments, a lobby, lounge, dining room, coffee shop, barber shop, fountain room, and banquet rooms. Now extensively renovated and converted to condominiums, the Baxter is again a social hub, fulfilling its original promise. In 1929, J. A. Lovelace delivered the opening toast, pledging that the Baxter would always do its part to “make Bozeman the best town in America in which to live." It continues as a timeless social centerpiece and a treasure in the Treasure State.
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