Bennett Block #1 and #2 (Brinck's and Deluxe)

By Richard I. Gibson

821-823-825-827 E. Front Street
Built: 1906; 1888
Status: Demolished Feb.-March 2014
Map

The intersection of Utah and Front Streets in the 1880s and early 1890s was the heart of South Butte,  a separate town with its own address scheme and population count until the mid-1890s. Front Street was the embarkation point for many travelers, with the Montana Central Railroad just south of the warehouses on the south side of the street. In 1906, the Northern Pacific Depot was completed across the street from these two buildings, and still stands. The area was platted in 1881 as the Noyes & Upton Railroad Addition.

128 E. Park

In late 1888 Bennett Block #1 (at right in photo at top) was constructed. Willard Bennett lived in Deer Lodge but was owner of the building and Vice President of Bennett Brothers Co., a dealer in agricultural implements, carriages, wagons, and produce. In addition to the store and office here, they had a large warehouse across Front Street as well as a store at 124-128 East Park in another “Bennett Block,” also known as the Willard House (lodgings) and (on the Arizona Street side) the Nelson Block. A saloon of various names occupied part of 128 E. Park for many years—from about 1901-1910 it was called The Council. The southwest corner of Park and Arizona is mostly a vacant lot today, with a small vacant spa store.

Bennett Block #2 -- upper level detail

Bennett Block #1 in 1890 contained a general store, a cigar and stationery store, and the South Butte Post Office.

In 1890, a two-story building to the west was completed. It held a gambling hall and saloon. In 1906, as reflected in the year emblazoned on the parapet, a new building was erected there, Bennett Block #2 (left in photo at top). By 1908, the two Bennett buildings together comprised the Bennett Hotel, with “transients solicited” to enjoy electric lights, steam heat, stationary basins, and baths. The ground floor continued to serve as retail space, including a drug store and a restaurant.

Bennett Block #1 facade and parapet detail

The ghost sign on the back (north side) of Bennett Block #1 reflects the 1920s grocery store that was in the easternmost retail space. The Stilwell Grocery was owned and operated by Elias (President) and Roy (Vice President) Stilwell. They lived with their wives Olive and Rita at 2710 and 2802 State Street, respectively (the Floral Park neighborhood). In 1928 when the Stilwell Grocery was on the ground floor, the upper level continued as the Bennett Hotel, managed by Mrs. Agnes Brady.

Stilwell Grocery ghost sign (1920s)

By 1944 Block #1 was owned by Harry Brinck, the Montana state distributor for Rock-Ola phonographs, amusement games, and novelties. His long tenure there, into the 1970s, gives the common name to the building today: Brinck’s. Block #2 for many more recent years served as the Deluxe Café and Bar, and was still in use in 2012.

The city and county of Butte-Silver Bow inherited the Brinck’s building on unpaid taxes in 2009. Although offered to developers twice, no one took the property. Demolition was planned, but that was tabled in 2011 when it was discovered that the Deluxe, which was still in use next door, used as one of its walls the original west wall of the Brinck’s building. The Brinck’s was ordered to be mothballed by the city in September 2011, but a required roof or roof patch was never done, and in May 2012 the city declared it a safety hazard and planned again to demolish it. The problem with the common wall continued to be an issue until the city paid the owner of the Deluxe $40,000 to purchase it so that both buildings could be demolished. The pair was offered again on developers’ packet in 2013, but the two expressions of interest were deemed to be incomplete or untimely. As of November 2013, the city awaits an asbestos abatement analysis and plans to demolish both buildings.

Resources: Architectural inventories in Butte Archives; city directories; Sanborn maps; Council of Commissioners meetings. Council Saloon image in “Some Representative Businesses, Butte, Montana,” c. 1901. Modern photos by Richard I. Gibson.

27 West Broadway (Butte Miner Building - Butte Floral Company)

Built: pre-1884; rebuilt 1906
Map 

The publisher of copper king W.A. Clark’s newspaper, the Butte Miner, used this space as a printing office from 1884. In 1906, Butte florist James King partly demolished the older structure and erected this unique two-story building.

The year 1906 marked the beginning of a new period of growth precipitated partly by a thriving copper industry and by freeing up of investor money as the legal battles of the War of the Copper Kings were largely ended. This optimism is mirrored in the architectural exuberance seen not only in Butte’s much grander buildings of the time, but in small businesses as well. The green-glazed brick and exotic Moorish revival arched windows provide an excellent example of this building trend, unique in Butte.

See also this Butte History blog post for an attempted murder connected with this building. Check this post for a report on the Miner Building, and this link for the small office building on West Broadway, which together replaced 27 W. Broadway as the Miner's offices and press room about 1901. 

Resources: Historic plaque by Montana Historical Society; Architectural inventory; Sanborn Maps; city directories. Modern photo by Richard I. Gibson; historic photo by Jet Lowe from HAER survey, 1979 (public domain via Library of Congress).

25 East Granite (The Napton)

Built: 1906
Architect: W.A. O’Brien
Map

A grand arched entryway topped by a wooden bracketed cornice and ornate iron rail welcomes visitors to the Napton. Because downtown apartment buildings were a hallmark of big cities like New York and Chicago, construction of the Napton Apartments in 1906 contributed to Butte’s image as a booming metropolis. Its construction also reflected investor confidence in Butte’s future, confidence justified by more than $3 million worth of building projects undertaken that year. The 1906 boom resulted in part from settlements of lawsuits in the War of the Copper Kings, freeing up investment money. The year is emblazoned in four separate medallions on the upper façade of the Napton.

Architect W. A. O’Brien designed and oversaw construction of the four-story, three-bay, 48-unit apartment building. As expected, the Napton soon became home to members of Butte’s professional class from teachers and mining engineers to business owners and stenographers. Judge George M. Bourquin, who lived here in room 211 from 1915 through 1939, was undoubtedly the Napton’s most renowned resident. Appointed to the federal bench from 1912 to 1934, Bourquin was a courageous defender of individual civil liberties in the face of the mass hysteria that swept the country during World War I. His decisions, highly controversial at the time, upheld such rights as freedom of expression and protection from unreasonable search and seizure. Bourquin and his wife Hazel also maintained a home at 223 N. Excelsior Street in the late 1920s.

Modified from historic plaque text by Montana Historical Society. Photos by Richard Gibson.

Leonard Hotel (205 W. Granite)

By Irene Scheidecker

Built: 1906
Architect: William A. O’Brien
Map

Turn-of-the-twentieth-century social critics viewed apartment living as “the most dangerous enemy American domesticity has had to encounter.” Nonetheless, construction on the Leonard was begun in March of 1906 as Butte was experiencing an economic boom, and there was a great demand for rental units in the growing city. The site chosen for the Leonard was considered excellent at the time of its construction: "It is close enough to the business district to be convenient, and yet far enough out to be in the fashionable residence district." (Butte Miner, March 25, 1906).

The Leonard was built from the start to house several classes of tenants. The spacious front apartments for wealthier tenants had extremely tiny kitchens; as the building featured a dining parlor in the basement, it was assumed tenants would take their meals there. In 1910, the Leonard Cafe advertised that it was “the best place in Butte to dine.” Patrons could enjoy a complete dinner for fifty cents. The apartments in the center of the building for middle-class tenants included full bathrooms and moderately-sized kitchens. At the rear of the building, apartments consisted of a single room with a closet and a sink; bathrooms were shared with other tenants. Many of the tenants in earlier years were single women: store clerks, teachers, and nurses. The Leonard was considered very respectable housing.

The building is not quite square with Granite Street. As with many lots and a few buildings in Butte, the front (south) side follows a mining claim, which is not quite coincident with the modern street edge. The photo above shows the asymmetrical cornice, which reflects this history. The cornice has been refurbished and repainted since this photo was taken, but the geometry remains the same as when the building was erected.

The myth that Marcus Daly had the Leonard built to block the view of his nemesis, William Clark, whose mansion stands next door, is untrue. When the Leonard was built in 1906, Daly had been dead for 6 years and Clark was seldom at the mansion, as he was a Senator in Washington, D.C. 


Resource: Historic plaque by Montana Historical Society; 1906 newspapers; property records. Photos by Richard Gibson.

Marcus Daly Statue

By Richard I. Gibson

Sculptor: Augustus St. Gaudens
Date: 1906, moved 1941
Map

The statue of Marcus Daly, in Park Street at the edge of the Montana Tech campus, celebrates one of Butte’s Copper Kings. Irish-born Daly (born December 5, 1841, emigrated from County Cavan in 1856) came to Butte from Nevada’s Comstock Lode. He worked for the Walker Brothers at the Alice Silver Mine in Walkerville, where he made enough money to invest for himself in the Anaconda Mine, on the Butte Hill. In 1882, with demand for copper soaring to provide wiring for telephones and electricity, Daly’s discovery of the Anaconda copper vein marked the beginning of one of the largest mining companies in the world. Daly died November 12, 1900.

The statue was commissioned in 1902 and completed in 1906 by Augustus St. Gaudens (1848-1907, and also Irish-born), designer of the U.S. twenty-dollar gold piece. The Daly statue was the last significant work of art produced by St. Gaudens; he died about a month before the statue’s unveiling September 2, 1907. It stood in North Main Street near the U.S. Post Office (today’s Federal Building) from 1907 until June 25, 1941 when it was moved to its present location. The move was spurred by vehicles colliding with the statue's base on Main Street, and was sponsored by the Butte Pioneer Club and Butte Citizens Committee, but paid for by Mrs. Marcus Daly.

Photo (of statue when it was on Main Street) by Arthur Rothstein, 1939, Farm Security Administration, LC-USF33-003098-M5 (public domain, from Library of Congress).

8 West Park (Metals Bank Building)

Built: 1906
Architect: Cass Gilbert
Map

The strength of Butte’s early financial community is well represented in this monumental steel, brick, and stone skyscraper completed in 1906. Copper king F. Augustus Heinze financed the $325,000 bank building, incorporating the newest steel-frame and curtain-wall construction techniques. Nationally renowned architect Cass Gilbert (1859-1934) drew the blueprints and Montana architects Link and Haire supervised the local work. Gilbert’s best known work is New York City’s sixty-story Woolworth Building (1913) and the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. (1932-1935).

One of Montana’s first skyscrapers, the Metals’ eight floors add significantly to Butte’s urban skyline. A copper-trimmed entry complements the gray stone. Above, brick walls and stone arches culminate at the sixth floor. Ornate wrought iron balconies punctuate the second and seventh floors. The cornice and exterior window casements are copper, largely with a black patina today. An open wrought-iron staircase carries this element inside, where copper-trimmed windows with African mahogany frames and a marble-walled elevator lobby reflect 1906 Butte’s wealth. A huge polished steel bank vault recalls the building’s first use.

Upper floors were renovated in the late 2000s to produce elegant loft apartments and condominiums. 

Modified from historic plaque by Montana Historical Society. 1979 photo from HABS/HAER survey, by Jet Lowe, via Library of Congress (public domain). Photo of copper-lined door by Richard Gibson.