Havre ( HAV-ər) is the county seat and largest city in Hill County, Montana, United States. Havre is nicknamed the crown jewel of the Hi-Line. It is said to be named after the city of Le Havre in France. As of the 2020 census the population was 9,362.

Havre was incorporated in north-central Montana upon 5 September 1893. In August 1893, twenty-six people voted to incorporate Havre as a city upon September 5 of that year. The townsite was platted south of the railroad tracks on parts of Descelles’ and Simon Pepin’s ranches. Like many railroad towns, Havre’s streets were set in a grid formation, with the east–west orientation of the railroad serving as the northern boundary of the town government parallel to the south by Main Street, which fronted the railroad tracks, followed by First through Third Streets. The avenues ran perpendicular to the tracks similar to Third Avenue handing out south from the Great Northern depot. The depot served as the gateway to the billboard district of Havre. First Street in the midst of Second Avenue and Fourth Avenue served as the main billboard street, and Third Avenue became the main avenue. The buildings in Havre during the 1890s were typical first-generation structures and mainly consisted of tar papered wood-framed shacks. Built close together, these buildings were false-fronted and one relation high, with a few scattered one-and-a-half and two-story buildings, like the Windsor Hotel upon the south side of First Street in the middle of Third and Fourth Avenues.

Along bearing in mind its annex, the Windsor, at two stories, was the tallest building on First Street until brick structures were build up in the mid-1890s. Havre had many businesses typical of a frontier town including saloons, barbers, restaurants, Chinese laundries, cobblers, bakeries, mercantiles, hardware stores, and hotels. Havre was founded primarily to abet as a major railroad service middle for the Great Northern Railway built by James J. Hill behind the city’s location midway in the midst of Seattle and Minneapolis-St. Paul. A statue of Hill stands near the Havre Amtrak station to commemorate the key contributions his railroad has made to Havre’s and Montana’s history. Next to the station upon display is Great Northern S-2 Class #2584, a 4-8-4 “Northern” type steam locomotive that served the station though it was in passenger service.

Originally named “Bullhook Bottoms”, the town held a series of meetings to determine a additional name. The indigenous settlers were solution the unchangeable decision, and due to a mighty French influence, the town was renamed “Havre”. To decide on a additional name, the town held a meeting. Though that first meeting over and done with in a brawl, the second meeting was more successful. There, the citizenry very that isolated the original five homesteaders, Gus Decelles, Exor Pepin (nephew of Simon Pepin), Tom McDevitt, Joe Demars and Charlie Goutchie would be allowed to vote. After several suggestions, including “France” to agree to their common heritage, Gus Decelles subsequently suggested Havre after his parents’ hometown of Le Havre, France. “Havre”, which means “the haven or harbor”, won the vote.