In the wake of disastrous fires of the previous decade, brick buildings like this mid-1880s combination business and rooming house gradually displaced less substantial frame constructions. F. J. Kenck’s saloon originally shared space with King and Nuss’s grocery/feed store, while second-floor furnished rooms helped alleviate a housing shortage. In 1918, Prohibition interrupted the saloon business until 1939, when new owner Frank Jester opened his tavern. Today this refined Italianate style building, with its flat roof, bracketed cornice, arched windows, and thirteen interior chimneys, continues to serve its intended function, recalling the neighborhood prosperity that followed on the heels of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
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