Filed Under Fort Benton

Cummings Building

Fort Benton Historic District

Originally this site was occupied by a wooden frame building that housed Mose Solomon’s Medicine Lodge. This legendary saloon was open twenty-four hours a day from spring thaw to first snow. When the building burned, prominent lawyer, customs collector, insurance agent, and stockman Thomas Cummings replaced it with this two-story brick structure. Cummings sold out and the building then housed a Chinese restaurant and emporium with an opium den in the basement until the turn of the twentieth century.

Images

Cummings Building
Cummings Building Cummings Building. Front view of the building, facing northwest on Front Street. Source: Overholser Historical Research Center, Fort Benton Tour; Fort Benton, MT Creator: Photographer unidentified Date: Date unknown
Cummings Building
Cummings Building Cummings Building. Front view of the building, facing northwest on Front Street. Source: Overholser Historical Research Center, Fort Benton Tour; Fort Benton, MT Creator: Ken Robison Date: July 2020

Location

1506-08 Front Street, Fort Benton, Montana | Private

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “Cummings Building,” Historic Montana, accessed April 20, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/226.