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.

303 West Park

Built: 1888
Use today: Beauty School
Map 

Historic maps reveal that this magnificent Renaissance Revival style building had rather humble beginnings. From 1888 to 1900, a one-story frame dwelling with a simple open-air porch spanning the front occupied this site. By 1916 the residence had received a second story and a covering of brick veneer. A handsome semicircular central bay flanked by square entrance porticos with hipped tiled roofs, elaborately detailed windows, scrolled brackets, and a decorative cornice are exemplary of the style. Butte businessman Thomas Lavell, whose home was next door at 301 West Park, was the building’s longtime owner/landlord and likely responsible for its splendid makeover. Tenant Jeremiah Flanigan, cigar dealer and vice president of the Rocky Mountain Bottling Works, lived here from 1906 to circa 1915, when the house was still a single-story residence. His household included daughter Margaret and a live-in servant. Today this neighborhood landmark appears much as it did in the 1910s. Recent efforts to restore the original interior grandeur include reproduction of the original oak wainscoting and crown moldings.


Resources: Historical plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

206-210-212 S. Idaho

210 S. Idaho (left), 212 (right), c. 1984

By Richard I. Gibson
Built: 1884-96
Status: lost (parking lot today)
Map 

210 S. Idaho

The east side of the 200 block of South Idaho Street, across from the old St. James Hospital, once held eight cottages (six of them two-story) and two 4-plexes (single stories plus basements). All are gone today, but three survived into the early 1980s.

206 S. Idaho was a porch-and-gable-roofed cottage begun before 1884, when the original front section stood flush with the sidewalk. A rear extension was added by 1890 and a second addition by 1900 made the house even longer. An early owner was Anthony Formel, who was a clerk at the A.W. Noble drug store (71 E. Park) in 1891-92; in 1893 he was listed as a dentist. His wife Kate ran the saloon at 130 South Main. In 1892, the Fornels sold the property to Victor Strasburger, a clerk at the Herman Strasburger furniture store at 80 West Park. The Strasburger clan lived largely at 124-126 West Granite in the 1890s, and it appears that they purchased this house to use as rental property.

210 S. Idaho was a one-story frame house constructed in 1896 for Mrs. Nellie E. Jones at a cost of $1,000. About 1899 a second was added to the main house and a single-story 8x16 kitchen was added to the rear; another rear addition was also added later. A large stable and wagon shed occupied much of the lot behind 210-212 S. Idaho.

212 S. Idaho was also built for Mrs. Nellie Jones about 1884-88. It stood very near, but not touching, 210 to the north. In contrast to the flat roof on 210, 212 had a sharp gable rooftop.

Resources: Architectural inventories in Butte Archives (sources of photos, which are tiny in the inventories hence the low resolution); Sanborn maps; city directories.

318 West Granite

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: 1884-1888
Map

This Italianate home complements the larger, but similar one across the street. 318 West Granite was built between 1884 and 1888, and was home to John Wesley Reed, a dentist with an office on the second floor of the building on the southeast corner of Main and Broadway (parking lot north of BS Café today) in the late 1880s and early 1890s. By 1900 his office was 115 N. Main, the second floor of the Dellinger Block. He continued to live at this house until after 1900, but was not listed in Butte in 1910.

Dr. Reed was born March 27, 1838, in Boone County, Missouri. He graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1877, and practiced a few years in Mexico, Missouri, where he served in various officer positions with the Missouri State Dental Association. Reed came to Butte in 1882, and was the first President of the Montana Dental Association.

The address of this house is sometimes listed as 316.

Resources: Architectural inventory; Sanborn Maps; city directories; Biographies of the founders, prominent early members and ex-presidents of the Missouri State Dental Association, by Burton Thorpe (1909) - source of photo of Reed. House photo by Richard I. Gibson.

308 West Granite

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: 1884-1888
Map 

This Italianate style home was built between 1884 and 1888 for Thomas Fletcher, a bookkeeper with the Clark and Larabie Bank (southwest corner of Broadway and Main).

By 1888, all the houses on the south side of the 300 block of Granite Street had been constructed, and all six survive today.

Resources: Architectural inventory; Sanborn Maps; city directories. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

411 West Granite

 

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: 1884-1888

Map

This Second Empire style home was among the earlier houses built this far west on Granite Street, erected between 1884 and 1888. The original owner, who built it for himself, was contractor James D. Jenks. From the beginning the house was two flats, one upstairs and one down, and there was also an alley house behind this building, addressed 411½. Built about 1890, the latter replaced a carriage house and carpenter’s shop that stood on the alley in 1888. That alley dwelling was gone by 1951 and the duplex carried the two addresses, 411 and 411½, as it does today.

Resources: Architectural inventory; Sanborn Maps; city directories. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.