Keim Building

The arrival of the Northern Pacific in 1883 brought sweeping changes to Missoula, and the 1891 Keim Building illustrates that transformation. The railroad spurred major building booms and made architectural pieces and parts readily accessible. Levi Keim, an early farmer and stage stop operator who was working as a Northside policeman, built the commercial block as an investment, with a drug store at street level and apartments upstairs. Its tenants later included the Northwest Steam Laundry in 1909 and A. W. Allen’s grocery in 1913. Keim spared no expense, giving the building Romanesque arches with granite sills, a unique central gable above the roof, elegant brickwork, and a pressed metal cornice, while the mail-order cornice and plate glass windows arrived via the Northern Pacific. Large commercial windows such as these revolutionized advertising by giving merchants better ways to display their goods. After economic depression struck in 1893, construction projects ended and the period of flamboyant commercial architecture passed, leaving the restored Keim Building as one of Missoula’s few surviving examples.

Missoula, Montana · United States