University Area Historic District

30 Locations | Curated by Historic Montana

Prominent business rivals C. P. Higgins and A. B. Hammond and others began to invest in this area during the late 1880s, platting additions and naming the streets after their children and associates. Creation of The University of Montana in 1893 prompted both the Hammond and Higgins families to donate land for the new campus, believing that the university would foster residential growth nearby. Building began in earnest circa 1900. The City of Missoula landscaped the boulevards and by 1912, paved the streets; electric trolleys, streetlights, and beautification efforts were all visible. Broad shaded boulevards, lawns, and elegant mansions of Missoula’s pioneers showcase the work of such noted architects as A. J. Gibson, H. E. Kirkemo, John G. Link and C. S. Haire, and others. Yet for all its grand appearance, residents have always considered the district to be a “quaint and quiet place” for families. Even the most elaborate houses were touted as “real” family homes with livable rooms and practical amenities. As the university experienced growth over the decades, apartments, old family mansions purchased by fraternities and sororities, and modest bungalows began to appear side by side along the forty-plus blocks bridging the area between campus and downtown. Yet, as it was at the turn of the century, the university neighborhood today is a cohesive community built upon the same early-nineteenth-century ideals of moderate living. Whether mansion or bungalow, the historic University Area reinforces the notion that Missoula is a city that respects and enjoys its history.  

Contractor E. S. Newton, who purchased this lot in 1910, undoubtedly constructed this fashionable bungalow. With its low-pitched hipped roof and wide, sheltering eaves, the one-story residence was designed to convey a sense of comfort and security. Doubled square wooden columns add dignity to the…
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Insurance agent George F. Gould and his wife, Susie, purchased this lot from the South Missoula Land Company in 1913. The deed stipulated that a dwelling worth at least $3,000 be constructed on the premises within fifteen years. The Goulds, however, settled in Bozeman and sold the lot in 1921 to…
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Low-pitched gables, large sheltering eaves with decorative braces, and an inviting front porch supported by “battered” piers mark this circa 1916 residence as a Craftsman style home. Irene Risley, married to railroad supply salesman Dalton Risley, is the first known owner. While Irene was one of…
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The Craftsman style created such local fervor that in 1911 the Missoulian Publishing Company hosted a local contest offering a Craftsman bungalow style home as the grand prize. That home stands today just outside the University Area district. By the 1920s, bungalows predominated in the University…
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Levi and Jennie Withee built this charming Craftsman style home circa 1920. Withee was a longtime railroad man who began work as a “shotgun” messenger for the Montana division of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1894. Promotion to express agent brought Withee, his wife Jennie, and their four…
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The 400 block of Keith boasts four Tudor Revival style homes, a testament to European influence on American architecture in the 1920s and early 1930s. Thousands of American soldiers served in Europe during World War I, and many veterans returned home with a new appreciation for European…
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Battered by drought and agricultural depression, Montana lost population in the 1920s. Even Missoula, which had a relatively stable economy, ended the decade 2,250 people shy of where it started. One bright economic light locally was the university, whose continued expansion influenced the…
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Missoula businessman A. B. Hammond platted this southern portion of the historic district in 1899. McLeod Street bears the name of Hammond’s business partner, C. H. McLeod. It was not until the university blossomed in the early twentieth century that the Hammond Addition began to see development.…
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Bay windows and a two-story front porch dress up this home’s basic “four-square” pattern. Stately American Four-Squares—marked by their pyramidal roofs, overhanging eaves, and cubical shapes—were extremely popular with middle-class suburbanites in the early 1900s. William Beacom and his wife Jennie…
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Harry and Grace Bell commissioned the Spokane firm of Rigg and Vantyne to design this elegant two-story home. A textbook example of a high-style Craftsman residence, its design features a cross-gable roof, exposed rafter tails, decorative braces, heavy porch supports, large gabled dormers, and…
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Longtime Missoula resident John C. Berne and his wife Agnes moved into this Queen Anne style home around 1912. The Bernes moved here from Billings where John was a brick manufacturer. John continued manufacturing bricks once in this city and made many of the bricks that were used in the building of…
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Architect A. J. Gibson—best known locally for his work on the Missoula Courthouse—designed this fashionable residence at the height of Queen Anne style. Built on two lots sometime before 1902, its defining features include an irregular roofline, asymmetrical façade, wooden turret, elegant front…
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Changing architectural tastes are central to the story of this elegant home, built for Henry and Leah Greenhood. A successful liquor wholesaler and real estate developer, Henry was one of Missoula’s early Jewish residents, arriving here by 1904. He married Leah in 1908, and the following year they…
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The Tudor style as it evolved from medieval England to twentieth-century America is well expressed in this charming one-story home. Hollow tile faced with smooth brick, gables with decorative brackets, and a gabled and round arched doorway are classic stylistic elements. Pairs of small-paned French…
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Olive McLeod, granddaughter of Missoula Mercantile founder Charles H. McLeod and Clara Beckwith, fell in love with this 1940 Neocolonial style home. Nine years later, she purchased the house from Luther Powell for whom it was built. A high-spirited woman with a degree in business administration…
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Christopher P. Higgins, a Missoula founder, bought 160 acres in 1887 in this area now known as the Montana Addition. He died in 1889 before the southside building boom, but in his will Higgins directed his heirs to complete unfinished housing constructed on speculation. In 1893, this…
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Frank Lloyd Wright developed the Prairie style because he believed that “Democracy needed something basically better than the box.” One of few homegrown architectural styles, its horizontal emphasis is the Prairie style hallmark. Attorney John E. Patterson and his wife, Caroline, built the home in…
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Neighboring business owners welcomed the Roxy Theater by purchasing more than a page of newspaper advertisements recognizing “the latest addition to Missoula’s South Side Business District!” Missoula suffered less than most Montana communities during the Great Depression—it was one of the few towns…
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Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad administrators envisioned a bustling warehouse district paralleling its spur line along South Fourth St. East. That district never materialized, but by 1912, the warehouse stood here, kitty-corner to the freight depot. The Swift Co., a national meat…
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The architectural character of this home, built in 1922, reflects the eclectic Craftsman style popular during the 1920s. The one-and-one-half-story cottage features a shallow, front-gable roof with wide eaves and exposed rafter ends. Horizontal beams with beveled ends support the front and rear…
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