Built in 1905, Malmborg School is one of the most architecturally interesting one-room schoolhouses in Gallatin County. The one-story octagonal school originally had an open front porch with wooden Doric columns resting on high plinths, and an open bell tower, also supported by Doric columns, once capped the roof. The bell tower, normally associated with church architecture, gave the design a moral overtone, while the residential-style front porch visually linked school and home. Octagonal schools, most often found in mid-Atlantic states in predominantly Dutch communities, are also associated with mid-nineteenth-century reformer Orson Fowler, who promoted the “Octagon Mode of Building” in his book, A Home for All. Architectural pattern books offered plans for octagonal schools and cited their benefits as the least amount of wall length for the most enclosed space, good light and ventilation, and uniform warmth. After 1919, the school’s north windows were walled in to prevent cross lighting from harming students’ vision, and a shed addition in the 1940s created space for indoor restrooms. As the desire to offer students a wider curriculum led to school consolidation and the closure of many one-room schools across Montana, Malmborg School resisted that pressure despite its proximity to the state’s fifth largest city. Built to educate the children of farmers, ranchers, and railroaders, it today serves children whose parents often work in Bozeman. In 2003, ten students in kindergarten through eighth grade attended Malmborg School, the only known octagonal school in Montana.