Hamilton Commercial Historic District - Hamilton, Montana - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The Hamilton Commercial Historic District in Hamilton, Montana extends east-west along Main Street with additional buildings on N. Second, S. Second, S. Third and State Streets. The district has 15 contributing properties including the Burns Block, the Carnegie Library, City Hall, IOOF Hall, the Telephone Exchange, and the Post Office. The Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on Sept 1, 1988.
There is a sign about the historic district in front of the old Post Office building. Text of Sign:
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.

Street address: Main, N. Second, S. Second, S. Third, and State Streets Hamilton, Montana United States 59840 County / Borough / Parish: Ravalli Year listed: 1988 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1875 - 1950 Historic function: Commerce/Trade Current function: Commerce/Trade Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/20/2023 MonkeyAndTheEngineer visited it 10/08/2010 Volcanoguy visited it

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