{"id":2768,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:40:14","latitude":45.29329301845556443595341988839209079742431640625,"longitude":-111.9460529208117947064238251186907291412353515625,"title":"Virginia City Café","subtitle":"Virginia City Historic District","fullsize":"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/3ee49e05326471fa33fc18f33854281b.jpg","address":"212 West Wallace Street, Virginia City, Montana","all_locations":[],"zoom":16,"creator":["Montana National Register Sign Program"],"description":"Fire swept through this block in 1915 destroying all the wood-frame buildings between Stonewall Hall on the west and the F. R. Merk building on the east. Originally this site was home to a small, wood-frame, false-front building. Hellman &amp; Co. clothing store located here in 1865-66, Poznansky and Rosenstein Dry Goods store in early 1867, and Schiller’s Clothing Emporium in 1867. Eastern European immigrants Poznansky, Rosenstein, and Schiller all belonged to a close-knit Jewish community that moved on as Virginia City’s economy slowed in the late 1860s. The building likely sat vacant for much of the 1880s and 1890s, but a saloon occupied the site by 1904. After the 1915 fire, Elbridge Smith built this modest, cream-colored brick commercial building and opened an electric appliance shop. Smith was an electrical engineer in the mining industry and owned a ten-stamp mill in Williams Gulch. In the 1930s, Charles Goldsmith ran a jewelry store here, and the Miner’s Café opened in the late 1950s. The building has been home to the Virginia City Café since the early 1970s.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"Private","lede":"","website":"","related_resources":["<a href=\"https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/655c36e6-eba6-4a96-999f-dc578b052864/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read about the Virginia City Historic District</a>","<a href=\"https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/8960a28e-0c37-4eb0-baa7-fc3d66d59220\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">See photos of the Virginia City Historic District</a>"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://historicmt.org/files/fullsize/3ee49e05326471fa33fc18f33854281b.jpg":{"id":2263,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Virginia City Café, Virginia City","description":"View looking south at Virginia City Café facade | Courtesy of Montana Heritage Commission | Oct 2019 | Kate Steeley, Montana Heritage Commission","thumbnail":"https://historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/3ee49e05326471fa33fc18f33854281b.jpg"}}}