Once a month I receive a call from someone looking for the architectural drawing set for a historic building. Most callers are surprised to find that the City doesn’t have them, and in most cases, the original blueprints no longer exist. In lieu of the drawings, I usually point community members towards a variety of research resources. Though the legwork can be daunting, the information turned up during a research expedition can be fascinating.

The first place to check is the Montana Architectural Inventory Form, completed in 1984 for the central core of Bozeman. Though these forms are generally slim on information, they provide good starting points like estimated date of construction, architect (if known), builder and sometimes original owner. These forms are available at the City Planning Office at 20 East Olive Street in Bozeman. The Planning Office also houses the water and sewer connection record cards; the applications necessary to connect the utilities to a building. These cards can further narrow down a date of construction and are signed by either the property owner or the builder.

If the architect is known researchers should check the Montana Architectural Drawings Collection in Special Collections, on the second floor of the Renne Library at Montana State University in Bozeman. This fantastic collection of designs drawn by architects and engineers covers buildings constructed across the state. Bozeman’s Fred Willson is included, along with W. R. Plew, Link and Haire, Oswald Berg and Bill Grabow. The architectural blueprints found in the archive cover everything from state institutional buildings to amusement parks.

Information about a structure’s footprint can be gained from Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, a favorite among architectural historians. They are to-scale maps created by the Sanborn Company after each building boom in a community. Sanborn then sold the maps to fire insurance companies, who would offer property insurance rates based on the information about a property’s distance from a fire house, a fire hydrant and construction materials of the building. The maps detail a building’s location, structural elements including porches and roof eves and sometimes label buildings according to the business housed in the structure. The Montana Historical Society has paid to make the Montana Sanborn Maps digitally available at no charge. The website is: http://sanborn.umi.com; the username is: “bitterroot” and the password “welcome.”

To find the name of previous property owners, the Clerk and Recorder’s Office in the Gallatin County Courthouse is an indispensable resource. The real estate paperwork included in a property sale is a starting point, and working backwards a researcher can trace each time the property changed ownership and the names of the people involved. The research can be expanded by cross referencing the Clerk and Recorder’s records for birth certificates, death certificates and wills and trusts, all of which can turn up valuable information about the property.

Once known, the property owner or builder’s name can be researched in the Polk Directories. Polk Directories list people by name and include their address, occupation and phone number. They also index street addresses and list the occupant or business name, occupation and phone number. The Pioneer Museum and Bozeman Public Library have Polk Directories from about 1910 through 2012 available for public use. In some cases the Polk Directory will list a deceased person and give a date of their death. This date can be cross-referenced with newspaper archives to find an obituary.

Bozeman’s early newspapers, including the Avant Courier and predecessor to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, are available on microfiche at both the Bozeman Public Library and the Renne Library at MSU. Unfortunately, the papers have not yet been indexed, so scanning pages of old newspapers can be tedious. It is, however, an interesting way to gain a historic context about the time period being researched. The advertisements in the paper are especially interesting to read.

Bozeman’s Pioneer Museum is another fantastic archive of information. Their files include research on all kinds of local and regional developments, specific people important in Bozeman’s past and a fantastic collection of historic photographs. It’s best to be broad in the subject area when looking for the photograph of a building. In many cases, a photograph labeled “Boy with Dog” can give a wealth of information about the house and streetscape behind the boy.

Family photo albums can also come in handy when trying to trace the history of a building. Christmas card photos, graduation snapshots and images of the new Chevy in front of the house can all prove very informative. Contact the previous property owners and ask if they can help you piece together the house’s history!

These are just a handful of locally available research resources in the Bozeman area. A more detailed list is available on the Bozeman Historic Preservation Advisory Board’s website: www.preservebozeman.org. Special thanks to Bozeman native and excellent history sleuth Richard Brown, who was indispensible in putting together a list of resources.

Courtney Kramer is a proud graduate of MSU’s History Department and serves as the City of Bozeman’s Historic Preservation Officer. She may be contacted at the City Planning Office, 406-582-2260 or via email at ckramer@bozeman.net. More information about Bozeman’s historic districts is available at www.preservebozeman.org Photo Sarah Daniels