Filed Under Butte

Thornton Block

Butte National Historic Landmark District

Beautifully detailed and thoroughly cosmopolitan, this $75,000 five-story hotel opened in 1901 featuring over one hundred rooms, a saloon, restaurant, barber shop, and bowling alley. A cast-iron and glass entrance canopy, stone balconies, Tudor arches, and decorative carving highlight the elegant exterior. Turn-of-the-twentieth-century hotel patrons, no doubt impressed with Butte’s metropolitan character, could even take an electric street railway direct to Sutton’s Broadway Theater. After 1947, the Thornton Block served for many years as a club for Anaconda Copper Mining Company employees.

Images

Thornton Block
Thornton Block facade Source: Montana Historical Society Creator: Bryan Baldwin Date: August 8, 2022
Thornton Block, Butte
Thornton Block, Butte View of the Thornton Building at 65 East Broadway St., Butte, Montana. Built as a hotel in 1901, by this photo it is likely serving as the Miner's Club for employees of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Source: PAc 946-108, Montana Legacy Collection, Montana Historical Society Research Center Photograph Archives, Helena, MT. Creator: Unknown photographer Date: ca. 1947-50
Thornton Block
Thornton Block Thornton Block, view of front door. Source: MontanaPictures.net Creator: MontanaPictures.net Date: June 2008

Location

65 East Broadway Street, Butte, Montana | Private

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “Thornton Block,” Historic Montana, accessed March 28, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/1870.