Marcus Daly (Montana) Hotel - Anaconda, MT - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

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Marcus Daly (Montana) Hotel - Anaconda, MT

in American Guide Series

Posted by:  T0SHEA

12T E 349117 N 5110245

Home to the Anaconda Commercial Club and then the Chamber of Commerce, for approximately forty-two years, the Montana Hotel was built in 1888.

The lavish and opulent hotel was built solely on the belief that Anaconda would, in short order, be named the capital city of Montana. This did not come to pass, but the Montana continued to shelter and entertain politicians and other VIPs for another century.
That extra story, plus one more for good measure, that Daly belatedly decided to add is no longer, having been removed several years ago, in about 1978.

Built as a four story hotel, in the intervening years the hotel has lost its top two floors and much of its splendor, but still hints at its prior glory with its corner turrets, large arched front windows and entrance and the terra cotta spread about on the exterior.

The Hotel was previously listed in the National Register under the name Montana Hotel, delisted after alterations in 1978, then relisted under the present name in 1979.

The industrial prosperity of his copper mines in Butte and the reduction works in Anaconda encouraged Marcus Daly to set higher goals for his company town. Daly began to pave a road for the political and financial success of the town in 1887 with the design and construction of a full-scale urban resort in downtown Anaconda. The four-story Montana Hotel at 200 Main Street was completed in 1888 for $125,000 and was recognized as perhaps the most advanced and luxurious hotel in the Northwest for its time.

Historians believe that the Montana Hotel was built by Daly specifically to house legislators, other state and national dignitaries, and prominent visitors to the town once Anaconda was named the state capital of Montana, a dream that Daly hoped to achieve after the Montana Territory was named a state in 1889. It was designed by Chicago Architect W. W. Boyington, and the hotel retained a combination of French Renaissance and Romanesque architecture. Special detailing includes or did include terra cotta columns, a central arched entrance, red oak and eastern pine flooring, lead glass mirrors, gas lighting, a carved mahogany bar (now in Sun Valley, Idaho), Italian marble fireplaces, and state-of-the-art steam heat and running water. Marcus Daly even commissioned an artist to produce a wooden inlay of his favorite thoroughbred racing horse, Tammany, on the floor of the bar. D. F. McDevitt of Butte served as the local supervising architect and contractor on the hotel, which opened with a lavish ball on July 4, 1889.
From the National Park Service

... in short order be named the capital city of Montana. This did not come to pass, but the Montana continued to shelter and entertain politicians and other VIPs for another century.

The MONTANA HOTEL, Main St. and Park Ave., is a three-story brick structure that is still proud of its bar, a reproduction of one in the old Hoffman House of New York. The woodwork is of Philippine mahogany, the floor of alternate strips of redwood and maple. Inlaid in the floor is a mosaic of Daly's race horse Tammany. A fresco of beer steins and ale glasses adorns the wall. It is said that late one night Daly arrived at the hotel, unannounced and unrecognized, and found the place filled. A printer just leaving for night duty on the Standard offered the stranger his room, "hoping he was a whisky drummer and might leave me a quart." Next morning the hotel manager informed the printer that from then on his rent was to be free.

Old-timers say that when the Montana Hotel was being completed in 1888, the energetic Irishman [Marcus Daly] stepped to a point of vantage across the street, took a good look at its two modest stories, then shook his head. "It doesn't look big enough," he said. "Put another storey on it."
From Montana, a state guide book, Page 370

That extra storey, plus one more for good measure, that Daly belatedly decided to add is no longer, having been removed several years ago, in about 1978.

Built as a four storey hotel, in the intervening years the hotel has lost its top two floors and much of its splendour, but still hints at its prior glory with its corner turrets, large arched front windows and entrance and the terra cotta spread about on the exterior. The Hotel was previously listed in the National Register under the name Montana Hotel, delisted after alterations in 1978, then relisted under the present name in 1979.

Montana Hotel

The industrial prosperity of his copper mines in Butte and the reduction works in Anaconda encouraged Marcus Daly to set higher goals for his company town. Daly began to pave a road for the political and financial success of the town in 1887 with the design and construction of a full-scale urban resort in downtown Anaconda. The four-story Montana Hotel at 200 Main Street was completed in 1888 for $125,000 and was recognized as perhaps the most advanced and luxurious hotel in the Northwest for its time.

Historians believe that the Montana Hotel was built by Daly specifically to house legislators, other state and national dignitaries, and prominent visitors to the town once Anaconda was named the state capital of Montana, a dream that Daly hoped to achieve after the Montana Territory was named a state in 1889. It was designed by Chicago Architect W. W. Boyington, and the hotel retained a combination of French Renaissance and Romanesque architecture. Special detailing includes or did include terra cotta columns, a central arched entrance, red oak and eastern pine flooring, lead glass mirrors, gas lighting, a carved mahogany bar (now in Sun Valley, Idaho), Italian marble fireplaces, and state-of-the-art steam heat and running water. Marcus Daly even commissioned an artist to produce a wooden inlay of his favorite thoroughbred racing horse, Tammany, on the floor of the bar. D. F. McDevitt of Butte served as the local supervising architect and contractor on the hotel, which opened with a lavish ball on July 4, 1889.
From the National Park Service