Belgrade’s incorporation in 1906 established its independence and created a need for local service offices. The Belgrade Bank, built in 1902, was already central to the town’s civic business as home of the telegraph line and newspaper. Its castellated Gothic style rendered into western vernacular, reminiscent of the late 1880s, gave it a formidable façade that represented hope for the town’s future stability. Bozeman architect Fred F. Willson, then just launching his career, designed an addition to match and structurally join the older building. Completed in 1912, the new addition included the city jail and a second-floor theater. Its glazed red brick façade features chimney-like extensions resembling battlements, and the brick parapet rises in the western false-front tradition. Originally, the parapet and cornice extended the length of both buildings, visually binding them together. The multipurpose building served as police headquarters, fire station, court, library, post office, community hall, and even basketball court. Although the older portion lost its Gothic façade, the 1912 structure remains one of two examples in the Gallatin Valley of this tenacious nineteenth-century style.