118 East Main - Main Street Historic District - Bozeman, MT - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

Perhaps the single most historically significant structure in the Main Street Historic District is the Black/Cooper Building (118 E. Main), which was built in 1872. This building, the first impressive masonry building erected in Bozeman and the oldest existing structure in the district, was associated with the perpetual quest for gold and the wars with the Indians that permeated early Montana history. Bozeman ranked only fourth in population of all towns in the territory of Montana in 1870, but by the time of the construction of this block, it was second, behind only Helena. A newspaper editor from that town visited Bozeman in 1872, and gave an impressive description, reprinted in Bozeman's Avant Courier, that was typical of other accounts that appeared frequently in the paper at the time. He remarked that in Bozeman: "Businessmen jostle each other on the sidewalks, [and] the rumble of drays and freight wagons is continuous from early morn till long after nightfall, while the sound of the hammer and trowel is heard above all the din of business." Even Frank Harper, a blacksmith, built an impressive brick shop, still standing today across the street from the Cooper/Black Building at 237 E. Main. Similar in detailing to that large block, the small, 1-story, 3-bay, false-fronted shop may have been executed by the same masons, Messrs. Crowell.
From the NRHP Continuation Sheet