The historic building's tenants will host its 120th birthday celebration Saturday.

When the hotel opened in 1891, it was "the most elaborate, complete and comfortable caravansary so far constructed in the state," the Bozeman Chronicle reported at the time. And it was sorely needed, residents said at the time. The early, log-hewn boardinghouses that popped up in Bozeman in the 1860s made fine accommodations for the frontier crowd of the town's early days, but they were hardly more than places to eat and sleep. But Bozeman was a growing city, and soon it vied for distinction as Montana's capital. To compete with Helena, residents sought a first-class hotel to attract merchants, dignitaries and tourists traveling along the main northwestern rail route to the Pacific and Yellowstone National Park. Butte architect George Hancock created the plans for the hotel. Brick, stone and timber was hauled in from Montana near and far. After a year of construction, the furnished hotel cost prominent Bozeman resident George Wakefield between $110,000 and $150,000. The hotel's grand opening was held March 2, 1891. The event was an important social function for Montana. Despite temperatures of 15 degrees below zero, about 500 revelers attended, some from as far away as Helena and Butte.
Attendants might have been curious about the hotel's red brick edifice, an early symbol of grandeur for the town of 5,000. And the hotel was lauded at the time as the most luxurious hotel in central Montana, with 136 guest rooms, 100 windows along Main Street, call bells, steam heat, fire escapes and hot and cold water. For the grand opening, a carpet stretched the distance from the woman's parlor on the second floor of the hotel to the dance floor in the opera house across the street. The carpet saved the ladies' clothes from Bozeman's reputably muddy streets.

Once the oldest running hotel in town, the building changed hands and ceased to operate as a hotel in the mid-1970s. After extensive renovations, it reopened as commercial space. The idea was to combine historical preservation, centralized shopping and entertainment similar to Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. Many of the hotel's original implements, such as the lobby's high arches, still stand. Now, the hotel is home to more than 50 businesses and one residence, said Brian Stoppel, one of the building's owners. "It's been a survivor for 132 years," Stoppel said. "There's more foot traffic here now than in any other time in its life."