Historic preservation is built on retaining older buildings which communicate our shared history. These places help us understand the events or specific people which shaped our past, as well as the architecture and construction techniques used during specific eras. Sometimes though, modifications drastically alter an older building, effectively disassociating the remaining physical structure from the building present during the historic era. It is possible for an old building to not be historic.

The house at 307 South Black Avenue is a good example. The building is located within the geographical boundaries of the South Tracy/South Black Historic District, on the National Register of Historic Places, but was not included in the National Register listing. To understand why, you have to understand the house’s history.

The residence first appears on a Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for 1889, and is shown in generally the same footprint on the 1890 and 1891 Sanborn Maps. The 1880’s and early 1890’s were a period of major growth in Bozeman, associated with the arrival of the railroad in 1883 and the state capital campaign of the early 1890’s. Builders constructed new residences north and south of the commercial district lining Main Street and the period of significance for the South Tracy/South Black Historic District includes this time period.

The man who eventually lived at 307 South Black Avenue played a part in generating this economic boom. Llewellyn Luce, an attorney originally of Kennebec County, Maine, arrived in Montana Territory in 1881 to negotiate the sale of portions of the Crow Reservation to the Northern Pacific Railway. Luce worked for the office of the assistant Attorney General for the Department of the Interior.

Preliminary survey maps from the 1870’s indicate that the Northern Pacific planned to build tracks on the north side of the Yellowstone River. Detailed construction surveys of the early 1880’s indicated a gentler grade through some portions of the landscape south of the river, which would save the NP construction costs and time. This necessitated the concession of rights of way through the Crow Reservation, which at the time stretched from the North Dakota Border to about 20 miles east of Livingston.

Luce and his team successfully negotiated to trade a strip of land 400 feet wide through the Crow Reservation for $25,000. The agreement also approved the construction of three wagon roads into the Reservation, presumably for the distribution of supplies to the inhabitants. Following ratification of the agreement by Congress in July of 1882, the Northern Pacific completed the transcontinental line into Bozeman by March 1883.

Luce moved his family to Bozeman in 1882 and established a law practice. In 1889 Luce brought his son John into the legal partnership of Luce and Luce. The business was apparently a family affair, as Polk Directories of the early 20th century list daughter Gertrude and John Luce’s daughter Permilla as stenographers at Luce & Luce.

In 1889 the citizens of Gallatin County elected Lleweyllan Luce, a Democrat, to serve as a member of Montana’s constitutional convention. From July 4 to August 17, 1889, Luce and fellow Gallatin County delegate Charles S. Hartman labored under the leadership of chairman William A. Clark (a Butte Copper King) to draft the Montana State Constitution.

A key component of the 1889 Montana Constitution was the election of the permanent state capitol through at the general election in 1892. Butte, Bozeman, Missoula, Anaconda, Great Falls, Boulder and even Livingston were considered candidates, and each community scrambled to make improvements designed to impress potential voters.

Bozeman constructed a new municipal building to house the City Hall, Fire Station and Opera House, as well as a substantial new hotel and Northern Pacific Passenger Depot. The election, rigged by the competing interests of WA Clark and Marcus Daly, left Bozeman in fourth place. As a runner-up prize, the community became the location of Montana State College. An institution of higher learning is not a bad conciliation prize for a corrupt election.

How does all of this history relate to 307 South Black Avenue? The residence was the home of Llewellyn Luce and his wife Lucretia. Sanborn Maps indicate major alterations to the residence sometime between 1891 and 1904; porches were enclosed and an addition made to the south west corner of the building. Llewellyn lived at 307 South Black until his death in January 1903. Lucretia and her daughter Gertrude remained there until Lucretia’s death in June 1912, after which Gertrude moved down the street to her brother John’s house at 319 South Black (another residence extensively altered by remodeling). In 1916 John Luce served as Mayor of the City of Bozeman and the Polk Directory lists Gertrude as the Deputy City Clerk at City Hall. John Luce died suddenly in his home at 319 South Black at the age of 50 on September 2, 1916.

The house at 307 South Black remained a single family household through two ownership changes. Sometime between 1912 and 1927 the room at the south west corner of the building was removed. Presumably at the same time the house was remodeled to resemble a craftsman style residence, effectively cutting the physical structure off from its association with the historically significant person of Llewellyn Luce. The house was again remodeled 1958, when it was split into three apartments, and a dormer added to the front of the residence. Tenants after 1958 include mechanics, store clerks, nurses and students.

The post-1912 remodels of the Luce house obliterated the building’s historic integrity; that is, the residence’s ability to convey its historic significance of the home of Llewellyn Luce. Luce would be unable to recognize his home in the remodeled structure at 307 South Black Avenue. The house’s design, materials, workmanship and general feeling have entirely changed since the time period during which the Tracy/South Black Historic district was home to some of the biggest movers and shakers in Bozeman, and Montana, history.   Thus, this old building is no longer “historic.”

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