Missoula's third city hall, the present building, long and low, stands on the southwest corner of Spruce and Ryman Streets. Built of red brick and concrete blocks with rough concrete trim, the building is shared with the Missoula constabulary, who occupy part of the southeast corner of the building. The first city hall, built in 1887 at the corner of West Main and Ryman Street, was succeeded in 1911 by a two storey brick building at 230 Woody Street. It shared that small building with the fire department until 1954. Finally, by the 1960s the city had outgrown their city hall and completed this building in 1969. It is probably eight to ten times the size of the building they had vacated.
On January 1, 1997 a new
Missoula City Charter took effect.
Today Montana’s second-largest city, behind Billings, the Missoula metropolitan area has a population of around 115,000. For much of its history a forestry and supply town, with the diminution of the lumber industry Missoula's largest employers are the U of M, schools and its two hospitals.
The first settlement in the Missoula Valley was at a place named Hell Gate, a few miles west. It was named Hell Gate by French trappers who witnessed the remains of many natives there, victims of intertribal wars. A settlement was begun at Hell Gate in about 1860, 54 years after the first whites, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, passed through what is now Missoula on their return trip in 1806. The first settlement in Missoula came about in 1864, with the construction of a store at a location then called Missoula Mills. This was at what is now the north end of the Higgins Avenue bridge on the north bank of the Clark Fork River.
Slowly at first the town grew, with the first school opening in 1869 and the first newspaper, the
Missoula and Cedar Creek Pioneer starting publication in 1870. In 1973 the first Higgins Avenue bridge was constructed and the first hospital, St. Patrick Hospital, opened. In 1877 Fort Missoula, on the northwest corner of the city, was established. The volunteer fire department was established the same year.
1883 was an especially important year for Missoula as it was chartered as the Town of Missoula and the Northern Pacific railroad arrived that same year. The town's growth accelerated apace with a city hall being erected in 1887. The second City Hall was opened at 230 Woody Street in 1911. Completed in 1969, the present city hall, which is shared with the municipal police force, is at least the third to be built in Missoula.
Electricity arrived in Missoula the same year that Montana became a state, 1889, and in 1895 the University of Montana opened. It remains the flagship campus of the University, with an enrollment of over 12,000 students.
Much of old Missoula remains intact, with a large number of National Historic Places in the city, probably the most notable being the
Missoula County Courthouse, built in 1908-1910. Missoula has also managed to retain its railway stations, the
Great Northern Station, at the north end of Higgins Avenue, and the
Milwaukee Line Depot, at the southern end of the Higgins Avenue bridge. Both are entered in the National Register.