File:37 E Main - Bozeman Montana - 2013-07-09.jpg

English: 37 East Main Street in Bozeman, Montana.

The structure is part of the "Story Block" -- a series of four commercial buildings that existed at 33-39 East Main Street. Nelson Story was born in Burlingham, Ohio, in 1838. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised by relatives and graduated at 16 from high school (it was not uncommon to graduate early from school at the time). He entered Ohio University, but left to work cattle ranches at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1863, Story and his new wife emigrated to Montana Territory, where he made $30,000 ($560,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars) in six months. He went back to Texas, and in 1866 made the first major cattle drive to Montana. It made him wealthy beyond measure. He became a merchant in Bannack and Virginia City, and moved to Bozeman in the 1870s. He co-founded the Gallatin Valley National Bank and then in 1882 opened the Story Flour Mill. His mill supplied nearly all the flour in the valley for the next 30 years, and he became the city's first millionaire.

Story built the Story Block in 1901. Unlike nearly all other businessmen at the time, he had no business to take space in the buildings. Rather, the Story Block was intended as an investment, and Story was one of the first entrepreneurs to rent space to other businesses.

35 E. Main and 37 E. Main have been occupied since the mid-1960s by Schnee's Boots and Shoes and Powder Horn Outfitters. The two companies merged their buildings into one in 2012 to create a 12,000-square-foot store. The façade, which had been altered significantly over the past century, was restored to a more historically correct (but not original) look.

Although the structure is located within the Main Street Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is not a contributing structure.