Initially comprised of 36 buildings, 28 of which were either of primary significance or listed as contributing, with 8 non contributing buildings. After the first boundary increase the district contained 79 buildings, 40 of primary significance, 22 contributing and 17 non contributing. Finally, with the 1986 boundary increase the district was enlarged to encompass several buildings south of 13th street. Today, after the second boundary increase, the district is comprised of 41 buildings of primary significance, 28 contributing and 22 non contributing buildings
The district extends from the Red Lodge Carnegie Library and the Northern Pacific Depot immediately north of 8th Street down Broadway to just south of 13th Street. It ends at 208 South Broadway on the east side and 211 South Broadway on the west side of Broadway.
As well, the first boundary increase included the beautifully decorated, but today neglected, Theaterium building on 11th Street. The second increase took in the stone and frame Craftsman Style Red Lodge City Hall and Fire Station situated on 11th Street across the street from the Theaterium building.
The Red Lodge Commercial Historic District is historically and architecturally
significant due to the ability of this coherent grouping of one, two, and three
story, masonry and wood frame late-19th and early-20th Century buildings lining
Broadway to accurately reflect the distinctive patterns of both the commercial and social development of this relatively remote, coal mining town in south central Montana.
The period of significance of the Red Lodge Commercial Historic District spans
the years from 1895, when local business people moved their buildings and businesses from the early commercial center near West 16th Street to the new commercial district platted by the Rocky Fork Town and Electric Company, and 1936, when the Red Lodge to Cooke City Highway opened for public use, which gave a tremendous boost to the newly prospering tourist industry in the town. During the period of significance, the city of Red Lodge grew from a small company coal town to a prosperous, ethnically mixed city of about 4,800 by 1910, marking its height of prosperity. During the 1920's, the Northern Pacific Railroad opened its coal mines in Colstrip, Montana, and began to close down its operations in Red Lodge. Red Lodge's East Side Mine closed in 1924, followed by the closure of the West Side Mine in 1932. Although the local economy fell into a severe decline, the development of tourist facilities in the 1930's partially filled the gap left by the cessation of coal mining.
During the late 19th and early 20th Century, the majority of the two and three story buildings were constructed of stone or brick with a first floor storefront and residential rooms, offices, or lodge halls on the second and third floors. These buildings exhibit a relatively high degree of ornamentation, such as elaborate sheet metal cornices, decorative corbeling, cut sandstone lintels, sills, coping, and quoining, cast iron storefront supports, spandrel leaded transom glass, and often highly detailed pressed metal ceilings and wall coverings on the interior. The buildings of the 1910's and 1920's followed a similar pattern of facade organization but were characteristically more subdued in detailing. The exuberant Theaterium, built in 1920, was a clear exception to this generalization. Streamline Moderne influences are evident in the buildings of the 1930's. These later buildings are typically one story structures that were built to infill the few remaining, small, undeveloped lots.
From the NRHP Nomination Form