The University of Montana campus has only four buildings in this 1903 image: University Hall, Women’s Hall, the Men’s Gymnasium with the athletic field behind it, and Science Hall. The town of Missoula is in the far distance. The long lines of trees were planted on Arbor Day in 1896. The neighborhoods south of the Clark Fork River are nearly empty east of Higgins Avenue; neighborhood development did not begin in earnest until the streetcar line to it was completed in 1912. Development west of Higgins Avenue on the east-west streets is visible. (A III a-40, Morton J. Elrod Photographs, K. Ross Toole Archives, The University of Montana—Missoula)

The university campus has grown physically and added many thousands of students in over 100 years. University Hall with its distinctive clock tower remains, as does Women’s Hall (now the Mathematics Building). The Men’s Gymnasium was torn down in 1965; Science Hall (then known as the Venture Center) followed in 1983, replaced by the Davidson Honors College in 1996. Geographically, economically, and socially, the university is irrevocably part of Missoula. (Photo by Chris Autio, 2006)