Built toward the end of the
Great Depression in 1936, the Dokken--Nelson Funeral Home is yet another of the designs of prominent and prolific local architect Fred F. Willson. It sometimes seems he designed practically the entirety of Bozeman. Architecturally, the building is considered to be of Neo-Gothic or Gothic Revival design. In 1987 the building was entered in the National Register of Historic Places.
This one-story commercial building has a rectangular plan with a projecting entry bay with an oval-transomed front entrance. The entrance is recessed and the cut limestone architecture is detailed with a carved, relief limestone surround. The facade is symmetrical and consists of the front entry and casement and fixed windows with leaded glass and wooden sashes. Limestone surrounds the doors and windows. Interpretation of English Medieval architecture with turreted coping and simulated buttresses adorn the front facade. The windows are pairs of single light casements or three-part casements with small, leaded glass lights and leaded glass transoms above.
From the NRHP Architectural Inventory
A full service mortuary, Dokken-Nelson is even older than the building, having moved here on completion of the building from a location three blocks to the east of this location.
Dokken-Nelson Funeral Home
Built for the leading early 20th century funeral home business in Bozeman, this fine example of the Neo-Gothic Revival style is indicative of the diversity of the work of Fred F. Willson, Bozeman 1 s prolific local architect of the early 20th century. Like many significant buildings of the period, this one is the result of collaboration between Willson and local contractor Henry J. Hamill.
The Dokken-Nelson Funeral Home was started in a section of the large, 1-story commercial block at the northwest corner of S. Tracy and W. Babcock. Hermann Dokken and Rod Nelson continued the business, moving it to this building upon its completion in 1936. Nelson remained a partner in the business until his death in the early 1950s. The funeral business still operates from the building today.
The Willson Job Lists note that plans for alteration to the entrance of the Dokken Funeral Home were drawn up in 1953. It is questionable what these alterations might have involved or if they were ever executed, for the entrance vestibule appears to be in complete compatibility with the original building. There is a garage attached to the side on the north, which was constructed in recent years of red brick and is considered to be a noncontributing addition. The north end of the block has been cleared of other buildings that once existed, and the lot has been paved for parking, which serves to lend this rather diminutive building greater visual impact.
From the NRHP Architectural Inventory