Tivoli Beer Hall

Railroad anticipation sparked a frenzied building boom prompting a shortage of brick that postponed completion of this popular watering hole for nearly two years. Begun in 1880, Phil Skeehan’s Tivoli Beer Hall finally opened in 1882. William Beall was both designer and contractor. The Italianate style building originally featured four arched entries and an upstairs porch spanning the front.

In the finely appointed second-floor lodgings, quiet was the only amenity lacking, since downstairs a main attraction was the music. Patrons turned around the spacious dance floor and revived at tables gaily decked with red-and-white gingham cloths. By 1910, John Fechter, who once played oboe in John Philip Sousa’s nationally renowned band, managed the Tivoli.

As director of Bozeman’s German Band and the first conductor of the Bozeman Symphony, Fechter maintained the saloon’s "dance hall" tradition well into the 1920s. In August of 1960, Hartman-Mockel Menswear was established on the main floor. Bob Paynich and Bob Braaksma owned the successful enterprise by 1983.