Hotel Baxter - Bozeman, MT
Posted by: T0SHEA
N 45° 40.762 W 111° 02.336
12T E 496967 N 5058424
Bozeman's Main Street Historic District is anchored by The Baxter Hotel at its west end and the Bozeman Hotel at its east end. The Baxter needed a little help from the Ellen Theatre, just a couple of doors down, to make this Lucky 7.
Waymark Code: WMWXPN
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 10/26/2017
Views: 2
HOTEL BAXTER
Recognizing the need for a luxury hotel, Bozeman businessmen joined together in a collaboration that spanned nearly a century. Culminating in the opening of the Hotel Baxter on March 2, 1929, the effort involved several generations of dedicated citizens including Bozeman resident Eugene Graf, the Baxter's architect Fred F. Willson, the Bozeman Community Hotel Corporation, and approximately 250 community members. Rancher/entrepreneur George Baxter financed the final $50,000 and named the hotel after his father. Willson's design blends Art Deco style with modern and classical references. The stunning grand triple-arched entry duplicates and doubles in smaller scale on the seventh floor facade. Hotel Baxter originally featured seventy-six guest rooms, eight apartments; a lobby, lounge, dining room, coffee shop, barber shop, fountain room, and banquet rooms. Now extensively renovated and converted to condominiums, the Baxter is again a social hub, fulfilling its original promise. In 1929, J. A. Lovelace delivered the opening toast, pledging that the Baxter would always do its part to "make Bozeman the best town in America in which to live." It continues as a timeless social centerpiece and a treasure in the Treasure State.
From the plaque at the building
One of the most notable examples from this period [1900-1930] is the glazed brick Hotel Baxter (105 W. Main), an eclectic Art Deco form which dominates the western end of the district by its sheer size.
While no buildings in the district were built during the ten year period between
1930 and 1940, a number experienced significant facade modifications. Two gained
wholly new facades, 9 and 219 E. Main, while three I others 118 E. Main, 20 W. Main, and the Hotel Baxter gained Art Deco style storefronts...
The city offered three hotels, the Hotel Bozemar? (321 E. Main), built in 1891,
the Baltimore (222-224 E. Main), built in 1918 and expanded in 1925, and the
Fechter (128-130 E. Main), also built in 1918, until a group of local businessmen
pooled their resources to construct a new, large and modern hotel, which was
intended to meet the first class standards of the 1920's. The resulting Hotel
Baxter rose at the eastern end of the district in 1928, and remains today one of
Bozeman's two major city landmarks.
The Baxter was designed by local architect, Fred F. Willson, whose work presently
comprises about fifteen percent of the buildings in the district (including both
new construction and visible alterations to existing ones). Two very large
buildings designed by Willson, 2-12 E. Main and 104 E. Main, were completely
covered in 1983 and 1972, respectively, and are not included in the above
percentage. Willson's diverse, although very typical work - in the context of
American architecture of the period - testifies to the increasing role of the
architect of the early 20th century, whose principal task was often to match an
appropriate design with the needs of a particular client. While the beginning of
Willson's career in 1910 coincided with the commencement of about two decades of
rapid growth in the district, the Depression and the post-Depression periods left
little significant physical evidence.
From the NRHP Continuation Sheet
See Section number 8, Page 18.
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