l remain.
By the 1910 census, Billings' population had risen to 10,031 ranking it the sixth fastest growing community in the nation. In 1911, a new Federal Building at First Ave. North and North 26th St. was begun. Completed in January 1914, it housed the post office, courthouse, and a booming U.S. Land Office. In 1912, the Montana Power Company constructed the Electric Building, aglow at night with recessed panel lighting. In May 1918, the Hart-Albin Building was completed and opened for business at Broadway and Second Ave. North.
Homes and older commercial buildings in the way of the boom were quick to go. At the same time, desirable neighborhoods rose up on the edge of the expanding downtown. A stone mansion and carriage house ("The Castle") built by Austin North in the 600 block of North 29th St. helped to set the pace in this fashionable northern part of town. On the western side of town, P.B. Moss built a red stone house on Division, and I.D. O'Donnell built a large new home at First St. West and Clark St. in 1904.
Toward the end of the homestead boom, oil production began on the outskirts of town. The Elk Basin oil field on the Montana-Wyoming border was located in mid-1915, and by the following year, the first well near Billings was drilled. Soon the Montana-Wyoming Oil Journal was in print to report on the latest developments from the oil fields. Just 6 years later, natural gas was also discovered in the basin, and plans for a pipeline to the city were discussed. In the 1940s and 1950s, this industry helped pull Billings into a new era and became a lynchpin of the local economy.
After World War II, Billings boomed into the major financial, medical and cultural center of the region. Billings always experienced rapid growth from its founding, in its first 50 years growth was at times in the 300 and 400 percentile. Billings's growth has remained robust throughout the years and at times almost unmanageable as in the 1950s when it
