Hardin in Big Horn County, Montana — The American West (Mountains)
Hotel Becker
Hardin Commercial Historic District
Photographed by Barry Swackhamer, July 19, 2021
1. Hotel Becker Marker
Inscription.
Hotel Becker. Hardin Commercial Historic District. German immigrant Anton Becker had great faith in Hardin’s future. Becker bought this lot on May 30, 1907, the day town lots went on sale. He soon constructed a two-story brick building, in front of which he installed Hardin’s first cement sidewalk. He and his wife, Katie, and their six children lived upstairs; downstairs was Becker’s Montana Saloon. In 1917, the Beckers hired Billings architect Curtis Oehme to convert the saloon into a hotel, adding a third story and extending the entire building to the alley. Oehme’s design drew attention to the hotel’s canted entrance through a square tower decorated with pressed metal, a metal roof, and an ornamental flagpole. According to the Hardin Tribune, the hotel, which cost $60,000 to build, included “a large lobby on each of the three floors, a barroom, dining room, kitchen and parlor … [and] thirty-eight handsomely furnished rooms, some of them en suite with private bath.” Ghost signs on the west and north walls still advertise rooms for “$1 up” and “$1.50 up,” respectively. Although Anton died in 1920, the hotel remained in the Becker family until 1954.
German immigrant Anton Becker had great faith in Hardin’s future. Becker bought this lot on May 30, 1907, the day town lots went on sale. He soon constructed a two-story brick building, in front of which he installed Hardin’s first cement sidewalk. He and his wife, Katie, and their six children lived upstairs; downstairs was Becker’s Montana Saloon. In 1917, the Beckers hired Billings architect Curtis Oehme to convert the saloon into a hotel, adding a third story and extending the entire building to the alley. Oehme’s design drew attention to the hotel’s canted entrance through a square tower decorated with pressed metal, a metal roof, and an ornamental flagpole. According to the Hardin Tribune, the hotel, which cost $60,000 to build, included “a large lobby on each of the three floors, a barroom, dining room, kitchen and parlor … [and] thirty-eight handsomely furnished rooms, some of them en suite with private bath.” Ghost signs on the west and north walls still advertise rooms for “$1 up” and “$1.50 up,” respectively. Although Anton died in 1920, the hotel remained in the Becker family until 1954.
Erected by Montana Historical Society.
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Architecture • Immigration
Location. 45° 43.829′ N, 107° 36.365′ W. Marker is in Hardin, Montana, in Big Horn County. It is at the intersection of North Central Avenue and 2nd Street West, on the left on North Central Avenue. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 200 North Central Avenue, Hardin MT 59034, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Montana’s and he Crow Nation, in Southeast Montana, in Custer Country. It is also in the American Mountain West, in the Lewis & Clark Corridor, on the prairies, on the Great Plains, and specifically on the Northern Plains. Globally, it is in North America, the Rocky Mountains, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once Rupert’s Land and also the Louisiana Purchase.
The marker is on the right side of the hotel front.
Credits. This page was last revised on December 27, 2024. It was originally submitted on January 2, 2022, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California. This page has been viewed 821 times since then and 26 times this year. Photos:1, 2. submitted on January 2, 2022, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California.
