The City of Bozeman has a number of identified Historic Districts each with their own distinct character.

View a map of the districts. 

Bon Ton District

Bon Ton Historic District Nomination 1986

South Willson Historic District Nomination 1978 - Included in Bon Ton District Nomination in 1986

Bozeman’s Bon Ton Historic District stretches along the 200-1000 blocks of South Willson Avenue, South Grand Avenue, South Third Avenue and West Cleveland Street. The district is home to a unique combination vernacular and high style residential architecture and has a period of significance spanning from 1880 to 1937. The presence of larger homes on larger lots distinguishes the Bon Ton Historic District from the adjacent Cooper Park Historic District to the west and the South Tracy/ South Black Avenue Historic District to the east.

Bozeman Brewery District

Brewery Historic District Nomination 1987

Bozeman’s Brewery Historic District sits along the 700-800 blocks of North Wallace Avenue. The district is significant as a representation of a historic brewing complex (demolished in 2014) which incorporated the new technology of refrigeration in the brewing process. The Lehrkind Brewery utilized its railroad spur line to bring raw materials to the facility and ship kegs and bottles of beer throughout the state. The Bozeman Brewery district includes adjacent residences owned by the Lehrkind family. The district's period of historic significance is from 1895-1925.

Cooper District

Cooper Park Historic District Nomination 1986

The Cooper Park Historic District, a large early 20th century residential area, contains about 250 diverse, one to two story frame houses with even spacing and setbacks, along level, tree-lined streets. The Bungalow style is clearly predominant in the district, though the eclectic Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles, promoted by early 20th century pattern books, are also well represented. Architectural features such as exposed rafter tails, truss brackets, bay and oriel windows, porches, and a variety of surface textures and roof types lend both a strong visual cohesion and a distinctly Progressive Era character to the district. 

Lindley Place District

Lindley Place Historic District Nomination 1986

The Lindley Place Historic District consists of a dense, very cohesive grouping of late 19th and early 20th century vernacular houses that line both sides of Lindley Place - an isolated, two block long street (which has no cross street) at the eastern edge of the city’s residential grid. In addition, three simple Bungalows on the north side of Olive Street terminate the north end of the district. Behind the lots on the east side flows Bozeman Creek. East of that is the broad, open space of Bogart Park. 

The ever-audible sound of Bozeman Creek, as well as amenities such as regularly spaced shade trees, concrete sidewalks imprinted with “Lindley Place - 1906” at the corner, a cast iron hitching post in the form of a horse head, together augment the unique, cohesive character of this small residential historic district. 

Main Street District

Main Street Historic District Nomination 1986

Bozeman’s Main Street Historic District is located on either side of Main Street, between Rouse Avenue and just west of Willson Avenue. A portion of the district borders West Babcock Avenue to the south. As the traditional heart of commerce and culture in Southwest Montana, the Main Street Historic District has a period of historic significance from 1867-1940.

Montana State University District

MSU Historic District 2013

The Montana State University District boundary starts at  W. College St, S. 11th Ave, W. Grant St and S. 6th Ave. and comprises 89.3 acres in the core of campus. This district contains 30 contributing buildings, 6 contributing sites, 3 contributing objects; as well as 11 non-contributing buildings, 3 non-contributing sites, and 3 non-contributing objects.

A designed cultural landscape that includes an urbanized forest of 26 species of purposely planted coniferous and deciduous trees, circulation networks that feature views and vistas. This the first Historic District for Montana State University

North Tracy District

North Tracy Historic District Nomination 1987

The North Tracy Avenue Historic District contains the most significant concentration of historic residential architecture north of Main Street, and is a representative portion of what was once a quite extensive historic residential area. Some of the houses in the district are among the most significant examples of vernacular architecture in the city.

The North Tracy Avenue Historic District consists of 28 diverse, modest residences spanning two blocks, from Villard to Peach Streets. Although nine of the buildings are either neutral or non-contributing to the historic district, the district is nevertheless defined by its high overall architectural integrity and cohesiveness compared to surrounding streets.

Nine of the residences retain enough of their original designs to maintain the historical continuity of the street. Of the contributing buildings in the district, eleven are Bungalow style and bear similar ornamentation, which helps to unify the district overall. The remaining nine are of diverse, 19th century forms, which display no specific stylistic elements. All but two houses are of frame construction although several of them are covered with aluminum or asbestos siding. The houses vary in size, design, and integrity, but are regularly spaced along the street and create a strong sense of rhythm along the full length of the historic district.

Northern Pacific - Story Mill District

Northern Pacific - Story Mill Historic District Nomination 1996

Bozeman’s Northern Pacific Railway and Story Mill Historic District represents Bozeman’s historic role as the transportation and economic hub of Southwestern Montana. In 1882, Bozeman merchant Nelson Story negotiated a Right-of-Way through his property north of Bozeman in exchange for construction of a railroad spur by the NP. At the end of the rail spur, Story constructed a massive water-powered grain milling complex. The NP also built a roundhouse, passenger station and freight depot. The area became a hub of agricultural-related production and has a period of historic significance from 1882-1945.

South Tracy District

South Tracy Historic District Nomination 1986

The South Tracy Avenue Historic District, despite its small size, remains a strong, clearly defined group of buildings representing both the earliest period of automobile use, and a period of exponential growth in the city. Being surrounded by houses of much later and more diverse time periods, many of which have undergone extensive alteration in the past 20 years, the historic district retains a sense of its original isolation on South Tracy Avenue.

An island of Bungalows from the time of its initial construction in 1917 and well into the 1930’s, the South Tracy Avenue Historic District remains a cohesive architectural unit, and a particularly vivid example of Bozeman’s rapid early 20th century expansion.

The seven similar, modest Bungalow style residences that make up the district, each of which has a separate garage behind it, represent the work of four local carpenters. Despite the extensive construction occurring throughout the city in the early 20th Century, this district remained an isolated unit, until the mid-1930’s when construction began filling in the surrounding blocks.

South Tracy - South Black District

South Tracy/South Black Historic District Nomination 1987

The South Tracy-South Black Avenue Historic District consists of 93 diverse, vernacular houses lining S. Tracy and S. Black Avenues between Olive and Alderson Streets, as well as a large school building and a neighborhood grocery store. It is distinct from the two large, adjacent residential historic districts in Bozeman due to its greater building density and its high concentration of significant architecture of generally more modest scale and ornamentation.

Many of the most significant buildings occur in pairs or groups of three, which heightens the overall visual impact of the district. Although many 19th century houses are found here, the numerous excellent examples of the Bungalow style are visually predominant. Overall, a continuous rhythm of regularly spaced houses along tree-lined streets act as a strong unifying element in the district.

Due to the scale, rhythm, and high concentration of significant historic architecture found along S. Tracy and S. Black Avenues, this district is visually distinct from all other residential areas in Bozeman. It also contains several fine examples of the earliest residential architecture in the city. Two of these are a pair of small, originally identical, 3x1 bay, jerkin head-roofed T-houses built in 1879 one of which retains its original Victorian period detailing. By the second decade the Queen Anne gave way to Bungalow style homes in this neighborhood.