Havre Residential Historic District

12 Locations | Curated by Historic Montana

The Havre Residential Historic District represents Havre’s economic growth and social change from 1895 to the 1940s. Located primarily at the district’s northwestern edge, turn-of-the-century homes of the social and business elite are large residences built in Queen Anne/Colonial Revival and Neo-Colonial styles. Their owners’ fortunes were made from providing supplies and services to soldiers at nearby Fort Assinniboine, homesteaders, and Great Northern Railway employees. As a railroad division point, Havre became home to white-collar workers who built smaller homes in the district. By 1907, the Craftsman bungalow was the preferred housing style. These smaller, one- or one-and-a-half-story dwellings reflect the security of the middle class in Montana during the first decades of the twentieth century. Havre’s establishment as Hill County seat in 1912 coincided with the Progressive political movement that sought clean cities with suitable housing for all. Between 1913 and 1917, the Home Builders Investment Company—created by local Progressives—built more than 100 homes. Post World War I depression dampened construction in the district, but late-1920s railroad expansion caused a housing boom. Homes subsequently built here during the Great Depression utilized lower-cost materials and simpler designs.

Joseph and Susanne Gussenhoven built this two-and-one-half-story Free Classic Queen Anne style home, known locally as “the Castle,” in 1903. Particular to this style are the irregular roofline, octagonal corner tower, textured walls, large porches, and Free Classic detailing, including Doric…
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Alexander “Nosey” D. Smith came to Havre as a Great Northern Railroad conductor when the first trains came through town in the mid-1890s. He purchased two lots for $5 in 1897 and built this late Victorian Folk style home in 1902. Multi-light windows and the steeply pitched roof with rolled edges…
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Red brick, finely crafted stonework, and a colonnade reminiscent of a Greek temple brought an imposing federal symbol to Havre in the 1930s. Securing state and federal funds for this post office was an expression of optimism during economic depression. It was also remarkable as one of only three…
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Born in Quebec, Exzelia Pepin followed his uncle Simon Pepin—Havre’s town founder—to Montana in 1888, a year after the Great Northern Railway reached Fort Assinniboine. Not long after, the Great Northern decided to build a division point at what was then called Bull Hook Bottoms. Exzelia was among…
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There was no sign of the impending Great Depression in January 1929. Havre had spent half a million dollars on construction the year before, and the future looked bright. Among those kept busy by Havre’s growth was prolific local builder Christ Fuglevand. Fuglevand, who built over fifty homes in…
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