Baatz Block in Great Falls, Listed!

The Western Commercial style Baatz Block represents a 1910s commercial building associated with a time in Great Falls when multi-story masonry buildings replaced 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.