Montana Club

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.[1]

The Montana Club, designed by Gilbert & Carsley.

History

The Montana Club was founded in 1885 by a group of 130 members for "literary, mutual improvement & social purposes."[1] Members gathered in various locations until they purchased a triangular-shaped plot of land owned by Samuel Thomas Hauser in 1891 to build a gentlemen's club.[2] The first Montana Club, designed by architects John C. Paulsen and John LaValle, was built in 1891-1893.[2]

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.[2][3] 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, which explains why the first floor is designed with elaborate stone arches rather than plain terracotta. Its construction cost more than $120,000.[3]

Members' Dining Room

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 [that pulled the fire engine] run." The boy was sent to reform school for the offense, but his father kept his job at the club for several more decades.[2]

The controversial entryway floor
Etched class statement on interior front door, explaining the swastika pattern

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.[4] 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.[5]

The modern club opens membership to both men and women.[1]

References
  1. "The Montana Club". The Montana Club. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. "Helena in 75 Objects: 25. Original Montana Club entryway". Helena Independent Record. July 31, 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  5. Baumler, Ellen (7 April 2014). "Montana Moments: Swastikas". Montana Moments. Retrieved 22 April 2017.


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