{"id":1735,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:40:11","latitude":46.24723379999999650635800207965075969696044921875,"longitude":-114.1565054999999802021193318068981170654296875,"title":"Burns Block","subtitle":"Hamilton Commercial Historic District","fullsize":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/0e249e677d7b96bee9cb16a700960559.jpg","address":"128-132 West Main Street, Hamiliton, Montana","all_locations":[],"zoom":17,"creator":["Montana National Register Sign Program"],"description":"Decorative brickwork ornaments this two-story Western Commercial style building constructed for jeweler Frank L. Burns. The Canadian-born Burns came to Hamilton in 1894, four years after the town’s founding. He originally ran his business from a one-story wooden building on this site. But in 1906, a giant steam shovel began excavating the “Big Ditch.” Bitterrooters hoped this irrigation canal would transform their valley into an oasis, and Burns saw an opportunity for expansion. His new fifty-by-seventy-foot building included two storefronts. Occupying one was his jewelry store, which in 1909 stocked “a full line of watches, clocks, diamonds and small jewelry, hand painted china, cut glass, [and] souvenirs” as well as musical instruments and fancy stationery. The other storefront he leased to various businesses, including a Chinese restaurant and a general store. The second floor he left undivided as a hall for “entertainments and dances.” As Hamilton’s first large public hall, it contributed markedly to the community’s social life. In later years, the second floor was reconfigured into apartments.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"Public","lede":"","website":"","related_resources":["<a href=\"https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/28936178-c346-4e2b-844b-1d1e8a449434\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read about the Hamilton Commercial Historic District</a>","<a href=\"https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/b8840c2c-2620-4969-a959-47bcb520f52d/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">See photos of the Hamilton Commercial Historic District</a>"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/0e249e677d7b96bee9cb16a700960559.jpg":{"id":312,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Burns Block","description":"Burns Block<br />\r\n(verso unavailable, photo affixed to survey sheet)<br />\r\nb&amp;w print | Official records of the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, Helena, Montana  | [no date] | Unidentified photographer","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/0e249e677d7b96bee9cb16a700960559.jpg"}}}