Civic, Commercial, Government, 1905-1925
Downtown north of Montana Avenue and Montana Avenue east of Broadway

The period 1905-1920 marked a new era, reflective of prosperous times, in downtown Billings, with massive stone structures for civic and government purposes built north of Montana Avenue. Two civic orders, the Elks and the Masons, built monumental buildings for their organizations separated in time of dedication by less than a month and in distance by one city block. Once the Great Northern Railway laid track along the Fifth Avenue North right-of-way, the corridor around N. Broadway and North 27th Street emerged as the heart of the business district. By the 1910s, the commercial area moved northward and westward replacing earlier residences as well as previously vacant lots.

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