The Bozeman Hotel, at the east end, and the Baxter Hotel, at the west end, serve as bookends for the Main Street Historic District, defining its east and west ends, respectively. The Baxter, incidentally, came much later, arriving on the scene in 1928.
On its 120th birthday, though no longer a hotel, the town and the building's residents had a celebration, covered by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Excerpts from their story follow.
Bozeman Hotel celebrates 120 years
By GRETA KAUL, Chronicle Staff Writer | Jul 13, 2011
Even if the Bozeman Hotel is no longer a place to sleep, it’s still a grand hotel.
The historic building’s tenants will host its 120th birthday celebration Saturday.
When the hotel opened in 1891, it was “the most elaborate, complete and comfortable caravansary so far constructed in the state,” the Bozeman Chronicle reported at the time.
Butte architect George Hancock created the plans for the hotel. Brick, stone and timber was hauled in from Montana near and far. After a year of construction, the furnished hotel cost prominent Bozeman resident George Wakefield between $110,000 and $150,000.
The hotel was lauded at the time as the most luxurious hotel in central Montana, with 136 guest rooms, 100 windows along Main Street, call bells, steam heat, fire escapes and hot and cold water.
The Hotel Bozeman had a costly and brilliantly lighted lobby, the most spacious and pleasant reading room in Montana, a dining room with a seating capacity of 150, and an elegant bar room, its own electric light plant, a barber shop, and a lady’s parlor with private entrance and staircase.
Once the oldest running hotel in town, the building changed hands and ceased to operate as a hotel in the mid-1970s. After extensive renovations, it reopened as commercial space.
Now, the hotel is home to more than 50 businesses and one residence.
From the Bozeman Daily Chronicle (July 13, 2011)