FOR RENT IN HAMILTON downtown location. Well maintained apartment with view of downtown and easy walking distance to coffee, department stores, grocery store, Post Office, and much more. Onsite coin operated washer and dryer. Sorry no pets. Nearest free parking is the City lot next to the Post Office.

Offered by Greener Montana Properties

Decorative brickwork ornaments this two-story Western Commercial style building constructed for jeweler Frank L. Burns. The Canadian-born Burns came to Hamilton in 1894, four years after the town's founding. He originally ran his business from a one-story wooden building on this site. But in 1906, a giant steam shovel began excavating the “Big Ditch.” Bitterrooters hoped this irrigation canal would transform their valley into an oasis, and Burns saw an opportunity for expansion. His new fifty-by-seventy-foot building included two storefronts. Occupying one was his jewelry store, which in 1909 stocked “a full line of watches, clocks, diamonds and small jewelry, hand painted china, cut glass, [and] souvenirs” as well as musical instruments and fancy stationery. The other storefront he leased to various businesses, including a Chinese restaurant and a general store. The second floor he left undivided as a hall for “entertainments and dances.” As Hamilton's first large public hall, it contributed markedly to the community's social life. In later years, the second floor was reconfigured into apartments.