While hanging around the Grand Hotel a bookcrossing aficionado released Enduring Love: A Novel, by Ian McEwan, on Sunday, March 15, 2009. At last report it is still fending for itself, alone in the wild.
1890 to 1893 was the time of Big Timber's major economic boom and it was at the beginning of this era that the Grand Hotel was built, helping to change Big Timber from a rough and ready frontier town to the commercial centre of the area. At the time Big Timber was the centre of a major sheep raising area, shipping 4,500,000 pounds of wool by 1900. Since its construction the Grand Hotel has remained the premiere hotel in the town.
As happened in essentially all frontier towns built predominantly of wood, Big Timber experienced a major fire, theirs coming in 1908. Fittingly, we suppose, the fire occurred on Friday the 13th in May, taking out most of the commercial district but, due to its brick construction, the Grand was spared.
We understand that, for a time in recent years, the hotel was closed, but it has recently been restored and reopened, boasting an excellent restaurant, rooms furnished with authentic antiques and the ambience of a turn of the twentieth century hotel.
GRAND HOTEL
When the Northern Pacific Railroad established a depot in Big Timber in 1883, the small frontier town fast became a business and shipping center, drawing trade from great distances. Construction of this fine hotel in 1890 well illustrates the impact of the railroad’s westward expansion. Local citizens were so confident in the town’s future that sheep rancher Jacob Halverson financed its $20,000 construction costs. The Grand was one of the early masonry buildings that replaced less permanent frame structures and sod-roofed log cabins along the main commercial street. The lovely façade with its extensive brick patterning and sandstone window surrounds is a tribute to the hotel’s unknown architect and local craftsmen. The Grand offered guests a sixty-seat dining room and forty sleeping apartments. An overnight stay cost about two dollars, and “no house in the state furnished better returns for the money.” But for sheep ranchers, miners, and residents, the Grand quickly became an essential place to socialize and conduct business. In 1908, on Friday the 13th of May, a spectacular fire destroyed nearly all the businesses along McLeod Street. Remarkably, the Grand Hotel remained intact. This enduring landmark, more than just a hotel to the community, continues to be a place to gather, hear news, and do business.
From the NRHP plaque at the building