Gladstone Hotel
One of the few remaining original buildings on Circle’s main street, the Gladstone Hotel welcomed its first guests in the new town on Christmas Day of 1915. Just over a year before, Circle town lots first went on sale. Built to serve travelers on the promised Great Northern Railroad, the Gladstone would wait 14 years to fulfill that duty. Meanwhile, homestead families moved steadily into this part of Dawson County and McCone County was created in 1919. The hotel has seen many uses over the years. In the great influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, it became the community hospital, with one room reserved as a morgue. During World War II, its restaurant was a gathering place for those awaiting radio news from the fronts. The Gladstone’s original “high class bar” never reopened after Prohibition ended, but since has been used for many a private party. And the hotel also became a retirement home for some of the community’s elders. Originally built with 20 sleeping rooms, the Gladstone received a 10-room addition in 1948 when oil development raised expectations of a new boom for Circle.
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