Missoula’s first exclusive residential area grew up along East Pine Street, and today it’s one of Missoula’s nine historical districts. There are a variety of historic buildings, most of them multi-family or single-family residences built between 1872 and 1940. All but six of the 50 major buildings were constructed before 1940. The district contains the city’s oldest residence (Francis Worden House – 1872), and the A.J. Gibson-designed Governor Joseph Dixon mansion, both located in the 300 block of East Pine. Download a short paper (in PDF format) to learn more about this unique district. (Click on image for larger size.)

The predominating man-made feature and unifying visual element of the District is its historic boulevard, which consists of approximately 15-foot-wide boulevards with large maple trees on each side of the street and a unique 25- foot-wide grass median.

Frank Worden, one of Missoula's founding fathers, came to the Missoula area in 1860 to open a trading post with C. P. Higgins. The Worden residence at 312 E. Pine Street was built in 1872 and is the city’s oldest residence.  Its design is an L-shaped or gable and wing style residence with steep pitched intersecting gable roofs and Gothic-revival style windows in the upstairs gable. This clapboard-sided residence has a polygonal first floor bay and wrap around open front porch with bracketed support posts. It was Frank Worden who is credited with importing maples from his native Vermont to line the boulevards that set the East Pine Street historic district apart from other areas of Missoula.

Born and raised in North Carolina, Joseph Dixon moved to Missoula in 1891, soon becoming a successful lawyer, businessman, and ultimately the governor of Montana. The Joseph Dixon home at 328 E. Pine Street (now the Knights of Columbus Hall) is the most prominent Neoclassical residence in the area and its grounds take up half a block. Its dominating Neoclassical feature is the massive two-story portico with pedimented gable with modillions and dentils, supported by four fluted Corinthian columns and Corninthian capitals. The front door features a molded cornice, ornamental architrave and paneled columns on each side. A Palladian-style window is located on the second floor above the door.

The two-story hip roof residence was built in two stages, the first floor between 1891-1902 (as seen to the right) and the second floor between 1912-1921 (as shown above).