Filed Under Virginia City

Virginia City Café

Virginia City Historic District

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 & 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.

Images

Virginia City Café, Virginia City
Virginia City Café, Virginia City View looking south at Virginia City Café facade Source: Courtesy of Montana Heritage Commission Creator: Kate Steeley, Montana Heritage Commission Date: Oct 2019

Location

212 West Wallace Street, Virginia City, Montana | Private

Metadata

Montana National Register Sign Program, “Virginia City Café,” Historic Montana, accessed March 28, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/2768.