Hamilton Commercial Historic District

16 Locations | Curated by Historic Montana

Hamilton was born of the Anaconda Company’s voracious appetite for lumber, nurtured on the Bitterroot apple boom, and sustained by medical research. Copper King Marcus Daly—whose Big Mill cut millions of board feet annually to feed his mines and smelter—created this timber town after coming to the area to raise race horses. Working as Daly’s front man, engineer James Hamilton quietly bought 160 acres from area farmers. He platted the townsite in 1890, with Main Street running between the Big Mill on the west and the railroad on the east. By 1893, over forty businesses had opened downtown, catering to the mill workers whose heavy boots resounded on the wooden boardwalks that lined Main Street. Fearful of fire, downtown merchants steadily replaced many of Hamilton’s earliest false-front wooden buildings with buildings constructed from locally manufactured brick or blue-gray stone quarried in nearby Corvallis. New money arrived in Hamilton after 1907 with the Bitterroot apple boom. Hamilton’s population burgeoned to three thousand, and its downtown gained several stylish architect-designed buildings, identifiable by their high-fire brick, metal mullion storefronts, and leaded glass transoms. In the 1920s and 1930s the Rocky Mountain Laboratory, founded to combat spotted fever, sustained Hamilton’s economy, and up-to-date business owners introduced a sleeker architectural style to downtown. Designed by Missoula architect H. E. Kirkemo, the Bower Building at South Second and West Main typifies the smooth lines fashionable in the 1930s, while the wood-frame false-front building at 411 West Main reflects the community’s earliest history.

Walter Fox sold meat from a one-story, wooden building on this site in 1893. An 1896 expansion added an icehouse, and the building, later occupied by a confectionery and fruit stand, still stood in 1909. Not long afterward, M. L. Kelley purchased the lot to construct this brick building, where he…
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With material and manpower redirected to winning the fight against fascism, commercial and domestic construction practically ceased during World War II. After the war, pent up demand led to a mini construction boom. With very few lots left on the 100 and 200 blocks of Main, downtown expanded west.…
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The owner of the Western News built this false-front building to house its newspaper office and print shop in 1895. Its editor, Miles Romney, Sr., was a strong Democrat and advocate for progressive reform; the Western News became known for its independence during a time when the Anaconda Company…
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Decorative brickwork ornaments this two-story Western Commercial style building constructed for jeweler Frank L. Burns. The Canadian-born Burns came to Hamilton in 1894, four years after the town’s founding. He originally ran his business from a one-story wooden building on this site. But in 1906,…
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Marcus Daly began construction of Hamilton's water system in 1896, making indoor plumbing possible for local residents. Hot and cold running water and bathrooms in homes—found in larger cities by the 1860s—did not become commonplace until the early 1900s. With plumbers in demand, William J.…
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