The delicious odor of roasting coffee must have added a pleasing dimension to this industrial area when Sawyer Stores, Inc. opened its plant here in 1928. The facility served as the main office of a grocery chain that operated stores in Montana and Wyoming. The brick commercial building on its prime corner featured a creamery and warehouse on the first floor and a bakery and coffee roasting equipment on the second floor. A bean mill, seed cleaner, ice plant, and a huge basement produce-and-cold-storage warehouse made this a highly diversified operation. Convenient to a railroad siding, trains could pull right up to a loading dock while a second loading dock, now the 23rd Street entrance, accommodated trucks. Sawyer Stores operated out of this location until 1963. Heavy post-and-beam construction, wood flooring, two walk-in vaults, and the still-functioning freight elevator are ample evidence of the long, useful life of this Billings landmark.
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