Moss Mansion Historic House Museum

The Moss Mansion, at 914 Division Street in Billings, is a red sandstone house completed in 1903 for Preston Boyd Moss and his wife Martha, known as Mattie. They had moved west from Paris, Missouri, and hired the New York architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, who also designed the Plaza Hotel and the Dakota apartment building in Manhattan. The house cost $105,000 at a time when an average American home cost about $5,000.

What makes the house unusual is that it was lived in by one family for more than 80 years and kept nearly everything. The Mosses raised six children here, and their daughter Melville lived in the house until her death in 1984 at the age of 88. The rooms still hold their original fixtures, furniture, drapes and carpets, along with wood panelling, marble fireplaces and an early intercom system. Mattie Moss gave each room its own style and function, from French Rococo to Moorish, and the museum has preserved or recreated those schemes, including the front parlour, the library and the master suite. Some of the children's belongings, including Melville's harp and the quilts and needlepoint of the eldest daughter, Kula, have returned to the house, and Mattie's own paintings and china are shown on the main floor.

After Melville's death the Billings Preservation Society took on the house in 1986 and opened it as a museum. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is funded through tours, events, weddings, memberships and donations.

Visits are self-guided during open hours, or you can join a guided tour. In October 2026 the house opens 12 to 4 pm daily except Tuesday and Wednesday, from 1 to 26 October, with guided tours at 1 pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The museum's site does not yet show its schedule after 26 October; in past years it closed briefly and reopened in mid-November for holiday tours with decorated rooms through early January, but check mossmansion.com or call 406-256-5100 before you go, as private events also close the house at times.

Admission is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors and veterans and $10 for ages 6 to 18; guided tours are $18.