Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA 1920s Montana Avenue warehouse in Billings that served as an emergency morgue after a 1945 military plane crash, and where a WWII soldier's apparition has been reported by employees and visitors.
2223 Montana Avenue, Billings, MT 59101
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The building now houses private offices, real estate firms, and a distillery; it is not a public attraction. The history is featured on the Billings Ghost Tour operated by US Ghost Adventures, and a seasonal haunted-house event has used the Depot space.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Renovated two-story commercial building in the downtown Montana Avenue historic district; sidewalk-level entrances.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1925 · Site connected to the deadliest aviation disaster in Billings history (1945 C-47 crash) · 1920s Sawyer Stores building in the Montana Avenue historic district · Temporary morgue for thirteen crash victims
The two-story building at 2223 Montana Avenue stands in the Montana Avenue historic district of downtown Billings, near the old rail depot. Dating to the 1920s and historically known as the Sawyer Stores building, it operated for years as a grocery business with a refrigerated warehouse.
On December 8, 1945, a C-47 military transport plane carrying soldiers returning home from World War II was caught in a blizzard while attempting to land at the Billings Municipal Airport. The aircraft crashed in a field east of Rocky Mountain College, in the area of what is now Veterans Park. Of the nineteen soldiers and crew aboard, only four survived; two crew members and seventeen soldiers were killed, making it the deadliest aviation disaster in Billings history. The crash is documented by the Billings Gazette, the Montana Memory Project, Distinctly Montana, and KTVQ, and was memorialized in 2006 with a monument and eagle sculpture at Veterans Park.
The scale of the disaster overwhelmed the county morgue. According to the Billings Gazette and KTVQ, thirteen of the bodies had to be stored in the refrigerated warehouse of the grocery store then operating at 2223 Montana Avenue until they could be processed. This grim, temporary use is the documented basis for the building's later reputation.
In the decades since, the building has changed hands and uses many times, housing the Spaghetti Depot restaurant, the Depot Antique Mall, and, after Chandler Griffin purchased it around 2016 and completed a multimillion-dollar renovation, a set of offices, a real estate brokerage, and the Asylum Distillery. The Antique Mall that gave the location its 'Depot' nickname is no longer in operation at the address.
Sources
The building's haunting is tied directly to its documented role in the 1945 disaster. According to KTVQ and the Billings Gazette, after thirteen of the crash victims, among them returning WWII soldiers, were stored in the grocery's refrigerated warehouse at 2223 Montana Avenue, the building gained a reputation for a lingering military presence.
Through the building's later incarnations as the Spaghetti Depot, the Depot Antique Mall, and beyond, employees, customers, and people passing on the sidewalk have reported seeing a uniformed soldier inside. The figure is consistently described as wearing a World War II-era army uniform and as appearing skittish: witnesses say that if anyone approaches too closely, he simply vanishes. One account collected by local reporting describes a semi-transparent figure in a WWII army uniform standing near a display case of military medals and ribbons during the building's antique-mall years, fading from view moments later.
The story is among the best-known ghost narratives in Billings and is featured on the Billings Ghost Tour run by US Ghost Adventures, and the Depot space has hosted a seasonal haunted-house event built around the city's real ghost lore. Because the haunting is anchored to a verified historical tragedy rather than an unnamed legend, the soldier is treated in local tradition with a measure of solemnity rather than as a scare-attraction character.
Notable Entities
The building's history as the temporary morgue for victims of the 1945 C-47 crash, and the reported WWII-soldier apparition, are covered on the Billings Ghost Tour operated by US Ghost Adventures, which walks the Montana Avenue historic district and other downtown sites.
View the 1920s Sawyer Stores building at 2223 Montana Avenue from the public sidewalk in the Billings rail-district. The building has been renovated for offices, a real estate firm, and the Asylum Distillery; the interior is not a public attraction, but the exterior anchors a stretch of the historic district associated with the city's most-told ghost story.
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