Saloons
Saloons rank among the West’s most iconic buildings. Carried over by European colonizers, the term saloon was synonymous with other drinking establishments like bars and taverns. Use of the term flourished during westward European settlement, forever tying the name to images of cowboys and gambling in the pre-Prohibition American West.
Saloons proliferated and changed as towns grew. Early mining camp saloons were mere tents or lean-tos. Later, permanent communities boasted more ornate, multi-story saloons, some equipped with dance halls, bowling alleys, lodging rooms, and gambling dens. The fanciest early saloons had decorative back bars shipped via steamboat. As rail transportation arrived after 1881, saloon numbers increased exponentially to serve thirsty crowds of farmers, cowboys, soldiers, and miners. Livingston—a division point on the Northern Pacific Railroad—had three thousand residents and thirty-three saloons in 1883. Saloon girls, present in all but the most respectable establishments, provided patrons company while encouraging them to purchase more drinks.
Montana saloons display great architectural diversity. Builders favored brick or stone for sophisticated saloons, a material that reflected a community’s permanency. Owners chose contemporary commercial designs ranging from the elegant Queen Anne to the creative Eclectic style. Incorporating elements from various styles added to each building’s character. Some featured rich interior decoration, such as pressed-metal ceilings, taxidermied animals, and ornate back bars. The Atlas Bar in Columbus still features especially extravagant front and back bars carved from mahogany as well as a menagerie of taxidermied mounts.
State Prohibition laws enacted in 1918 brought an end to alcohol sales and to most saloons. Many businesses converted into cigar shops or “soft drink parlors.” Some continued to illegally operate out of back rooms as speakeasies, such as in Butte’s M&M Cigar Store and Billings’s Rex Hotel. After Prohibition ended in 1933, a small percentage of Montana’s pre-1918 saloons reopened as bars (the term “saloon” never regained its previous popularity). Today, Montana’s historic bars recall the state’s most beloved boomtown-era business.
Frank Prasch Blacksmith Shop
Virginia City National Historic Landmark District
Like the blacksmith shop next door, this early building was probably a dance hall or saloon in the mid-1860s run by owner John Trollman. In 1865, Trollman was one of Virginia City’s seventy-three licensed retail liquor dealers. By the 1870s, a larger door and higher roof had been added to…
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California Wine House
Helena Historic District
Most of Helena’s earliest commercial buildings fell victim to the fires that plagued the gulch. This simple 1860s commercial building, originally a single story of stone construction, was a notable exception, surviving a disastrous conflagration in 1874. Early occupants include the Sands Brothers…
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J.F. Stoer Saloon
Virginia City National Historic Landmark District
Retail liquor dealer J. F. Stoer operated here from the raucous 1860s until about 1890. From that time until 1908, Smith and Boyd, who ran the livery next door, ran this establishment, aptly renamed the “Bale of Hay.” After 1908, the building stood empty until 1946, when the Boveys saved it from…
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Anaconda Hotel (Faiweather Inn)
Virginia City National Historic Landmark District
The oldest section of this building, dating to 1863, was first a simple one-story building that housed a restaurant called the “Young American Eating House.” A butcher shop followed from 1866 to the 1880s, and then in the 1880s the building was a hotel/saloon. It became the Anaconda Hotel and…
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F.R. Merk Block
Virginia City National Historic Landmark District
Gold dust was the common currency when George Higgins built this sturdy “fire-proof stone” business block circa 1866. F. R. Merk leased the new building for his mercantile, advertising fancy and staple groceries, liquors, household implements, and a tin shop with “prices to suit the times.” Merk…
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Herndon and Donaldson Furniture Store
Virginia City Historic District
In 1865, on this site, the Montana Bowling Saloon offered “good exercise, choice Liquors and Cigars,” at fifty cents a roll. Circa 1873, contractor and lumber dealer William Thompson replaced that building with a Greek Revival storefront, whose ornamental cornice looked much like the one next door.…
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Ten Pin Alley Saloon
Virginia City Historic District
Virginia City grew up almost overnight after William Fairweather found color in Alder Creek. Miners rushed to the rich diggings, leaving Bannack, Montana’s first major gold camp, practically a ghost town. Among the Bannack merchants to follow their customers to Virginia City was J. E. McClurg, who…
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Rodney Hotel
Helena Historic District
Thomas K. Dane established a hotel on this corner in 1875 when Helena became the territorial capital. On a busy thoroughfare just off Courthouse Square, the establishment had become the Rodney Hotel by 1883 and the original frame building fronting Rodney Street soon assumed its present L-shape.…
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Alden Block
Helena Historic District
Courthouse Square was already the busy seat of county government when the territorial capital moved to Helena in 1875. Isaac Alden, clerk of the Territorial Supreme Court and later state court commissioner, financed this circa 1880 multi-purpose brick building just steps from the courthouse.…
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Tivoli Beer Hall
Main Street Historic District
Railroad anticipation sparked a frenzied building boom prompting a shortage of brick that postponed completion of this popular watering hole for nearly two years. Begun in 1880, Phil Skeehan’s Tivoli Beer Hall finally opened in 1882. William Beall was both designer and contractor. The Italianate…
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13 West Broadway
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The stone foundation and masonry fabric of this early 1880s commercial building reflect the change to fireproof building materials after 1879, when a catastrophic fire destroyed most of Main Street. In 1884, the two-story building, like many of its neighbors, had multiple uses. A millinery shop…
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Kenck & Company Saloon / King & Nuss Grocers
Helena Historic District
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…
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Danforth Block
Livingston Commercial Historic District
A wood-frame cigar factory and shooting gallery stood here in 1884. After fire destroyed the buildings in 1886, owner J. A. Danforth quickly rebuilt in brick. Four years later, he added a second story, but the addition was so heavy it damaged the first floor. In 1891, he remodeled, adding iron…
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Pizer Building
Philipsburg Historic Disctrict
One of a network of Jewish merchants who supplied miners in the Rocky Mountain West, nineteen-year-old Benjamin Pizer arrived in Helena from Poland with his wife Jessie Silverman and their newborn son David in 1869. With limited capital, he purchased fifty pounds of dry goods, which he peddled to…
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Ida Block
Anaconda Commercial Historic District
Anaconda grew practically overnight. Platted in June 1883, Anaconda already boasted eighty buildings by December 1884, including a wood-frame clothing store on this corner, built by pioneering Jewish merchant Wolfe (William) Copinus. In 1888, Copinus hired architect D. F. McDevitt to design this…
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Headquarters Building and Daily Company Annex
Missoula Downtown Historic District
An exuberant ambassador of the late nineteenth century and its more Spartan complement comprise this architectural duet, whose history spans Missoula’s development. The older and more impressive Headquarters Building, designed by architect John Larkin for Mitchell and Bennett in 1888, was…
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Lee Pleasant Driver's Saloon and Club Rooms
Anaconda Commercial Historic District
After attending Fisk University in Tennessee, Lee Pleasant Driver enlisted in the Twenty-fifth U.S. Colored Infantry in 1888. The twenty-five-year-old private, who soon advanced to corporal, served at Forts Keogh (Miles City) and Missoula. He was one of the famed “buffalo soldiers,” who patrolled…
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M & M Cigar Store
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Sam Martin and William F. Mosby were the first of many proprietors of the legendary saloon, eatery, and gambling house that has operated here since 1890. Although Martin and Mosby’s tenure was short, Butte’s love of nicknames endured and their initials remain on the M & M. For more than a…
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Harvat Block
Livingston Commercial Historic District
An 1886 fire destroyed the one-story tin shop and hardware warehouse that originally occupied this lot. Two year later, meat merchant and rancher John Harvat purchased the property. Livingston’s premier Gilded Age architect, I. J. Galbraith, designed the Harvat Block, which was completed in 1890.…
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Brunswick Hotel
Missoula Downtown Historic District
The Brunswick Hotel, built 1890-1891, is an excellent example of vernacular commercial architecture, with a Queen Anne emphasis. It is one of Missoula’s oldest remaining hotels associated with the beginning of the railroad era here, when hotels arose to serve rail workers and passengers. The…
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Yukon Bar
Billings Old Town Historic District
Once considered the “wrong side of the tracks,” Minnesota Avenue was known for its many bars, brothels, cigar stores, and Chinese restaurants. (Chinese districts often bordered red light districts, serving inexpensive food to the working women and other patrons.) Around 1893, German saloon keeper…
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Brewery Saloon
Kalispell Main Steet Historic District (Addendum and Boundary Increase)
In 1894, the two-year-old Brewery Saloon—then a one-story, twenty-five-by-sixty-foot building—served Kalispell draft beer for five cents a glass. Lunch was free. One of Main Street’s first brick buildings, the saloon featured an oak and mahogany bar, French mirrors, and brass trim. German…
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Bon Ton
Lewistown Central Business Historic District
Built around 1893, the Bon-Ton is one of four remaining pre-1900 masonry structures in the Central Business Historic District. The term bon-ton means “a good or elegant form or style; regarded as fashionably correct.” This structure is an excellent example of early brick remodeling on stone and its…
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Kenney Block (Montana Bar)
Miles City Main Street Historic District
This popular gathering place, one of Miles City’s oldest established businesses, has been proclaimed by connoisseurs the perfect bar. Originally a saloon (1893), then a fine saddlery (1900-1907), businessman James Kenney purchased the property in 1908 to house his Montana Saloon. Architect Brynjulf…
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Nicholas Blindauer Building
Hamilton Commercial Historic District
Charles Fonger built a two-story building on this corner in 1893. The saloon on the first floor was one of twenty-one taverns serving the thirsty men in this town of nine hundred residents. A lodge hall occupied the second floor. In 1902, Matthew Blindauer purchased the saloon. According to his…
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Push Saloon / Silver Dollar Saloon
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte saloons bragged of their diversity, specialization, and peculiarities. Frenchmen drank white whiskey at the Canadian, and the Scotch were entertained by bagpipes at McGregor’s. Swedes patronized the Scandia Hall and blacks the Silver Tip. Engineers frequented Jerry Clifford’s saloon, “high…
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Helsinki Bar and Steam Bath
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Twelve saloons, six grocery stores, eighteen boarding houses, a community hall, and three saunas served “Finn Town,” a bustling ethnic enclave in the 1920s. Finns were relative latecomers to Butte, arriving in numbers around 1910. Miners of other nationalities lived here in the 1890s when this…
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820 North Main
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Built into the hill, so that the second story is level with the ground, this two-and-one-half-story structure dominates the block. By 1900 the first floor housed a saloon and billiards parlor as well as a small residence. The second floor also served as a dwelling. By 1916, the building…
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Crystal Saloon
Billings Old Town Historic District
Billings rancher and businessman James R. Conway built this handsome, brick, double-front store with an upstairs boardinghouse in 1900. Conway opened the Crystal Saloon in the west half and J. C. Staffek ran a cigar shop in the east half. The two businesses were among many saloons, cigar stores,…
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Heller Building
Kalispell Main Steet Historic District (Addendum and Boundary Increase)
Kalispell already boasted its fair share of saloons when August Heller opened this downtown establishment in 1900. Cream and mottled brick with a “reverse stair step” cornice—the hallmark of local brick masons Jack, Art, and Ed Stahl—made the Heller Saloon an impressive business. Heller traveled to…
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Silver Dollar Saloon / Jordan's Cafe
Kalispell Main Steet Historic District (Addendum and Boundary Increase)
A confectionery sold candy from a one-story building here in 1892. In 1901, the Theo Hamm Brewing Company replaced the small frame structure with this highly fashionable business block. The second story features a stamped metal façade designed to look like stone. Unique to Kalispell, the elaborate…
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Smith Saloon
Wibaux Commercial Historic District
Constructed during Wibaux’s transition period from a cattle town into an agricultural center, this Queen Anne commercial style building originally housed the Smith Saloon. Partners William H. Smith, John R. Cornell, and W. H. North built the saloon between 1904 and 1906 and later sold the business…
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Laux Building
Lewistown Central Business Historic District
Philip Laux came to Montana in 1885 from Germany and worked in a Helena stone quarry until he relocated to Lewistown in 1890. Two of the earliest stone builders in Lewistown, brothers John and Philip Laux built many local buildings. This 1905 building illustrates the use of mixed architectural…
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Oriental Saloon
Belt Commercial Historic District
A one-story wood-frame building stood here between 1897 and 1907. Reflecting the mining town's early hard-drinking culture, it first originally housed two saloons. When Swedish immigrants Charles Carlson and George Edman purchased the lot in 1907, the town's prospects looked strong. The…
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Bowen Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The inscription in the corbelled cornice of this two-story residential/commercial block identifies its first owner, William Bowen, and declares its construction date as 1907. By 1909, the Eagle Saloon occupied one of the two storefronts while proprietor John Skubitz lived upstairs with his wife and…
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Rex Hotel
Billings Townsite Historic District
A twist of fate landed 16-year-old German immigrant Alfred Heimer a job with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show in 1894. Although the irascible Colonel Cody fired young Heimer three times during that first day, the youth remained as steward of Cody’s private railway car until 1903, developing a…
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Mackey Building (Montana Tavern)
Lewistown Central Business Historic District
Constructed during the 1911 half-million-dollar Lewistown building boom, the $20,000 Mackey Building sits directly over Big Spring Creek. A blend of Romanesque and Classical Revival styles, the structure maintains much of its original façade, including the original Mackey Building sign in the…
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McGraw's Saloon
Fort Benton Historic District
After the turn of the twentieth century homesteaders poured into Montana, and by 1910 the area’s land office at Great Falls processed between a thousand and fifteen hundred homestead filings per month. The peaceful little river town of Fort Benton boomed again. Increased population meant more…
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Modern Hotel
Newlyweds Lot and Hilda Borden arrived in Whitehall early in 1900, and for the next seventy years, their business contributed to the local economy. At first, Lot ran a saloon and Hilda a cafe. The Bordens built the east portion of the present building in 1913 as a billiard hall, saloon, and…
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Mitchell Block
Deer Lodge Central Business Historic District
Deer Lodge flourished after its designation in 1908 as a division point for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. Housing, dining, and entertainment were then at a premium. The Mitchell Block opened in 1913 to help fill these niches, offering a saloon, grill room, dining rooms, and…
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Wiley, Clark and Greening Bank (Jersey Lilly)
Completion of the “Milwaukee Road” brought hundreds of homesteaders to Ingomar during the 1910s. By 1914, wood-frame homes and a small commercial district proclaimed the town a permanent settlement. On July 2, 1914, the Ingomar Index announced that a bank would soon open, marking an important…
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Atlas Bar
Billings architect Curtis Oehme designed the Atlas Block, constructed in 1915-16 of locally quarried sandstone. Rusticated pilasters project above the roofline, and a checkerboard patterned frieze enlivens the cornice. The solid two-story building has always served as Columbus’s social center. Even…
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Hap's Place
Helena Railroad Depot Historic District
As Prohibition became the law of the land in 1920, Charles Eybel briefly opened a restaurant in this new commercial building. Although it officially sat vacant after 1922, legend has it that the party began long before Hap’s became a legitimate bar. Local businessman Einar Larson claimed that…
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Club Moderne
Goosetown Historic District
It was a grand and gala event on October 9, 1937, when John “Skinny” Francisco debuted his luxurious establishment to an eager public. Souvenir roses and etched liquor glasses commemorated the long-awaited occasion. Club Moderne is today a premier example of the Art Deco style, especially…
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