Deer Lodge Hotel
The Deer Lodge Hotel, located at 322-328 Main Street, is a three-story brick and stone building with two arched open courts on the upper levels. It was designed by H.F. Beinke of St. Louis. It is a large rectangular building with a flat roof, taking up one-third of the east side of the 300 Block. The building originally housed some commercial businesses along Main Street and Missouri Avenue, with the hotel occupying the upper two stories. Currently, a majority of the building is vacant. There are two visible entries on the main
level, one on the northeast corner, and one on the southeast corner of the building, which originally served as the main hotel entry. Rectangular lights line each of the commercial spaces above the boarded over windows.
Although the main level of the hotel has lost much of its material integrity due to being covered over in various materials, the integrity remains exceptional on the upper two stories. A belt of decorative iron accents the building and marks the bottom of the second story. The two upper stories house 6/4 double-hung, symmetrically placed windows. All of the windows are slightly inset, wood-frame, and have stone sills. A narrow stone belt is located near the eave, and a heavy overhanging cornice of pressed metal with modillions accents the roofline. The corners of the building and the archways leading through each upper story are quoined with stone, and the peak of each archway is accented with stone. Several rectangular blocks of decorative brickwork accent the roofline below the cornice.
It was reported by the local newspaper in February 1911, that the modern hotel for Deer Lodge would be three stories and that the project was taken on by an incorporated company made up of local and Washington state capitalists. The capital behind the company was $75,000 with Leopold Schmidt, once a brewer in Deer Lodge and a Montana Legislator, the principal stockholder. Schmidt founded the Olympia Brewing Company in Washington.
The company purchased 85 x 130 feet on the corner of Main Street and Missouri Avenue and construction was to begin in May of 1911 (The Silver State, February 5, 1911:1). The supervising architect, H.F. Beinke of St. Louis, had arrived the previous day. The contract for the excavation work, which included the foundation and basement walls, was awarded to contractor Tim Calnan (The Silver State, May 24, 1911:1). The building was designed with 52 guest rooms and is unique in that each room has a window that is provided by the arched open courts. The hotel was constructed with hot and cold running water and the floors were served by an elevator. The hotel informally opened for guests on March 20, 1912, but the hotel was still without dining. Mayor Conley of Deer Lodge and his family had the honor of being the first guests.
In addition to short-term occupancy, the hotel appears to have served as a long-term residence around the Depression. In 1930 the hotel rented to several families and individuals by the month. On average, rent was about $25, but ran as high as $38. The 1930 Census listed 10 individual spaces rented by the month, with a total of 51 occupants. Occupants included some hotel employees, to include two managers. The lodgers were diverse in age and occupation, with some as young as 19 and as old as 51. Some worked as managers and merchants of retail spaces in Deer Lodge, while others were school teachers, pharmacists, bankers, civil engineers and workers for the railroad. According to The Silver State Post, Andrew A. Malcom acquired the "controlling interest in the corporation" in 1939 and his family had managed it as
late as 1983.
From the NRHP Registration form