Livingston Commercial Historic District

As the Northern Pacific Railroad pushed its tracks westward in 1882, representatives arrived at this bend in the Yellowstone River to open a company store. They pitched a tent, stocking it with 140,000 pounds of goods hauled by ox-drawn wagons. Other merchants set up shop as track-laying crews spilled into Clark City. By 1883, Northern Pacific surveyors had platted a townsite nearby for their division headquarters, and Clark City's tents moved to the new town of Livingston. Named after a company director, Livingston's early Main Street was a muddy track bordered by wooden sidewalks, and the false-fronted wooden stores, offices, and many saloons did a lucrative business. Madame Bulldog's Bucket of Blood Saloon served a rowdy and transient clientele, among them the notorious Martha "Calamity Jane" Cannary. In 1885-86, fires destroyed much of downtown prompting reconstruction of more substantial, permanent brick buildings. Advertising painted on downtown buildings boasted all manner of goods and services while local cigar factories, mills, brickyards, and breweries further assured Livingston's survival. By the 1890s, the town had become essential to tourists as the departure point for Yellowstone Park. Finally, the construction of the grand Northern Pacific depot in 1901-02 displayed the railroad's promotion of Park tourism and commitment to Livingston's future.

Antique furniture, red oak doors, a towering lobby, and 700 square feet of marble make this historic hotel a timeless ambassador of the “real West.” Built circa 1904, the Murray began as the Elite Hotel (locally pronounced EE-light) when Livingston was a busy tourist hub. Its unassuming brick…
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In 1883, Wetzstein Hall, a two-story wooden building with a liquor wholesale operation on the first floor and a public hall on the second, stood on this site. In 1902, Fred Pape opened the National Park Steam Laundry here. He purchased the building in 1903, only to see it burn to the ground a few…
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Entrepreneur brothers Tommy and Billy Miles constructed this dignified building in 1903 strategically located across from the Northern Pacific’s new passenger depot. The first floor of the masonry business block provided the booming community with much-needed retail space. Early tenants included a…
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A Jewish immigrant from Poland, tailor Henry Frank first arrived in Montana in 1867. He and his wife Barbara followed the Northern Pacific Railroad to Livingston, where they built the city’s first brick business block in 1883 on East Park. In 1890, Frank purchased a one-story wood-frame building on…
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An 1886 fire destroyed the one-story tin shop and hardware warehouse that originally occupied this lot. Two year later, meat merchant and rancher John Harvat purchased the property. Livingston’s premier Gilded Age architect, I. J. Galbraith, designed the Harvat Block, which was completed in 1890.…
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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…
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