Montana Avenue 1882-1920

Like Minnesota Avenue, Montana Avenue grew at a break-neck pace in the first decade, but there are no buildings remaining from that period. In fact, whole blocks were destroyed by fire. The block between Broadway and 27th Street burned in 1919, once the site of Chapple Drug (northeast corner of Broadway and Montana) owned by two doctors who provided emergency care out of the back of the store until St. Vincent's Hospital opened in 1898. The block between 27th and 26th burned in 1884 and the block to the east burned in 1885. Hotels built between 1900 and 1920 dominate the east portion of Montana Avenue to North 24th Street. The warehouse district between North 27th and 26th was built up during a short period between 1915 and 1920.

Montana Avenue Warehouse District 1915-1930

From Billings' earliest days, warehouses were located in the area around the railroad tracks at the heart of downtown. This warehouse district grew and became denser as the town became larger and the business base expanded. The warehouses along this block are representative of the last wave of warehouse and wholesale building construction to occur between the Minnesota-Montana business corridors. Many goods came in by rail to local warehouses and were distributed out to retailers throughout town or freighted to outlying smaller towns. Conversely, locally grown agricultural products were always a mainstay of the local economy and were brought by farmers and ranchers into the warehouse district to depart by rail for markets elsewhere.

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