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The Montana Club is a historic building in Helena, Montana, U.S., completed in 1905 and contains within it a restaurant and bar that were originally part of a private, traditional gentlemen's club established in 1885. The Montana Club was the longest-continuously open private club between Minneapolis and Seattle until it reorganized in June 2018 as a co-operative association and opened to the public for dining, as well as private meetings, celebrations and business gatherings.

History

The Montana Club was founded in 1885 by a group of 130 men, mostly from Montana Territory for "literary, mutual improvement & social purposes." Members assembled in various locations throughout downtown Helena until 1891 when they purchased a triangular-shaped plot of land owned by Samuel Thomas Hauser to build a traditional style gentlemen’s club. The first building, designed by architects John C. Paulsen and John LaValle, was built in 1891-1893.

The building was set on fire in 1903 and all but the first floor was so severely damaged the building was declared a total loss. The fire was set by the 14-year-old son of the bartender, a boy who had started previous fires, and who actually rode to the site with the firefighters, later explaining his motive "was to have the horses run." The boy was sent to reform school for the offense, but his father kept his job at the club for several more decades.

A new building, built with terracotta, was designed by architects Cass Gilbert and George H. Carsley. It was built on the footprint of the old building, and the first floor structure was salvageable. Its construction cost more than $120,000. The new building replicated the old clubhouse's floor plan added a rathskeller and dining room or banquet hall. The granite arches were totally dismantled, inventoried and set aside for potential incorporation into the new structure. The new building was constructed using brick manufactured by the Western Clay Mfg. Co. (Kessler Brick Co.), recycling some of the granite from the original building, augmented with new granite from the nearby Baxendale quarry.

The entryway of the original structure was preserved in the rebuild, and became a subject of some controversy many years later on account of the counter-clockwise swastika designs embedded into mosaic tiles on the floor. The design as installed in the 1893 building was derived from Native American symbolism and intended to represent friendship, good luck or well-being, as opposed to the later meaning given to the clockwise-oriented symbol adopted by the Third Reich. Though the floor was carpeted over for many years and the design beneath largely forgotten, the management of the building ultimately chose to allow the floor to be visible and use it as a tool to teach how the meaning of a symbol could change over time.

In 2018, the Club reorganized in as a co-operative association and opened to the public for dining, as well as private meetings, celebrations and business gatherings. On November 3, 2023, the Montana Club filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The management announced that they would remain open and continue serving guests during the bankruptcy procedure. However, they closed shortly thereafter, announcing a reopening for one night only on March 29, 2024 for the purpose of selling the remaining liquor in the bar to raise funds to pay the insurance policy.

References

1. ^ "The Montana Club". The Montana Club. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
2. ^ Simonson, Robert (March 21, 2024). "Last Call for the Montana Club, and a Past Straight Out of 'Yellowstone'". New York Times. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
3. ^ Dean, Patty (Spring–Summer 2006). ""Unique and Handsome": Cass Gilbert's Designs for the Montana Club" (PDF). Drumlummon Views: 154–176. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
4. ^ Van West, Carroll (Spring 1988). "The Arch in Helena's Nineteenth Century Architecture". Montana: The Magazine of Western History. 38 (2): 77–79. JSTOR 4519137.
5. "Helena in 75 Objects: 25. Original Montana Club entryway". Helena Independent Record. July 31, 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
6. Baumler, Ellen (7 April 2014). "Montana Moments: Swastikas". Montana Moments. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
7. "Montana Club files for Chapter 11 voluntary bankruptcy, remains open". Helena Independent Record. November 3, 2023. Retrieved November 4, 2023.
8. "The Montana Club is shutting down, but it is inviting the community for one last call". KTVH. 16 March 2024. Retrieved 23 March 2024.

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• Buildings and structures in Helena, Montana
• 1893 establishments in Montana
• Clubhouses in Montana
• Buildings and structures completed in 1893
• Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023
• Gentlemen's clubs in the United States
• Cooperatives based in Montana
• Montana building and structure stubs