Baatz Block in Great Falls, Listed!

Located on the southeast corner of 2nd Avenue South and 4th Street South in Great Falls, the Baatz Block represents an early commercial building associated with the development of the actively growing city in the early 1910s. The colorful past of the building only enhances the role it played providing long- and short-term accommodations, concurrently as a hotel and as apartments. The Baatz Block hosted both working class visitors and long-term residents. It also gained notoriety for housing one of the first cabaret establishments in Montana with subsequent use of the space for several bars and taverns through the decades. In addition, the ground floor provided a venue for several smaller businesses to operate. 

Architecturally, the Baatz Block embodies the distinctive characteristics of the Western Commercial style with its roots in later 19th and early 20th century neo-classical styles, sometime referred to as Early 20th Century Commercial Block style of architecture; the significant architectural elements of the building remain predominantly unchanged from their original appearance.

From 2025 Award Ceremony

The Western Commercial style Baatz Block represents a 1910s commercial building associated with a time in Great Falls when multi-story masonry buildings were replacing their earlier wood-framed counterparts. The Baatz, which housed a succession of ground floor bars and taverns with hotel rooms above, has a colorful past. It was so notorious that it became a poster child to legislators who invoked Baatz’s owner and his ilk when the 1917 legislature passed a temperance bill into law making Montana a dry state.

Fast forward a century, and the Baatz is making a productive contribution to Great Falls and Montana's housing crisis with the help of NeighborWorks Great Falls, HomeWord of Missoula, and Historic Tax Credits. The Baatz will reopen next month offering community services and 25 apartments for otherwise unhoused people. 

Julie Stiteler prepared this nomination.