Lavina Post Office #2 - 59046 - Lavina, MT - U.S. Post Offices on Waymarking.com

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Lavina Post Office #2 - 59046 - Lavina, MT

in U.S. Post Offices

Posted by:  T0SHEA

12T E 658803 N 5128859

Ninety years young when entered in the National Register in 2000, the Slayton Mercantile Co. was once home to either the first or second post office in Lavina, depending upon one's paradigm.

Finally closed in 2004, 94 years after it opened, the present Slayton Mercantile Co. building was the second built in Lavina. The first, a wood frame building was built in 1908 and, in typical frontier town fashion, burned down just two years later. Just two months later the owner, Daniel Webster Slayton, had a new brick building up and open for business.

The "Lavina" in which the building stands was actually the second "Lavina" in the vicinity. The first was built in 1883 a mile upstream on the Musselshell River as a stage station. After a couple of years the stage station housed a post office, several residents, a hotel, a branch store of T.C. Power and Co. and the little hamlet of "Lavina" was born. When the "Milwaukee Road" railway pushed its tracks through what was then Fergus County in 1907 its surveyors chose a different spot for the station, a mile downstream from the stage station. Realizing it would be fruitless to dispute the railway's choice of location the original "Lavina" moved to its present location and started building anew.

As a result, the Slayton Mercantile Co. housed the first post office in "New Lavina", but the second post office named "Lavina", the first one being in "Old Lavina".

Nowhere is it indicated that the first Slayton Mercantile Co. building, (built 1908, burned 1910) held the Lavina Post Office, but the second, this one, housed the post office, apparently from the day it opened until 1923, when the Lavina State Bank, just across First Avenue, failed and the post office took over the ground floor of the building. Daniel Slayton was named postmaster in 1910.

The town of Lavina was established in 1883 with one log structure featuring a combination dwelling, hotel, storeroom and post office. In 1885 the log structure housed several residents and a branch store of T.C. Power and Co., also in 1885 the first bridge crossing the Musselshell River was constructed.

In 1907, the Milwaukee Railroad and depot were constructed east of the original Lavina townsite. The railroad attracted other businesses to new Lavina and in 1908 the Adams Hotel and the original Slayton Mercantile were constructed. In 1909, Dan Slayton established the first Bank of Lavina and a sheep shearing plant. Within a few years Lavina became a thriving economic center...

On June 9, 1910 the original wood frame Slayton Mercantile burned to the ground. The new building was completed two months after the fire on August 4, 1910: "Since the magnificent new building of the Slayton Mercantile Co., has been completed, Lavina seems to have taken a new lease on life."

The new building housed the post office and Mr. Slayton was appointed Postmaster in 1910. The store offered a variety of goods and services during its years in operation. Slayton Mercantile supplied the needs of homesteaders, farmers, and ranchers of the area. The mercantile offered groceries, school supplies, kitchen cabinets and a harness shop. In 1916, Slayton Mercantile Co. began selling Ford cars and a year later sold farm implements and Titan Tractors.
From the Slayton Mercantile Co. Registration Form

SLAYTON MERCANTILE CO.
T. C. Power’s stage line established a stop in 1883 where the town of Lavina was born. In 1907, the Milwaukee Road came through attracting new businesses, among them the Slayton Mercantile Co., established in 1908 by Daniel Webster Slayton. A prominent sheep rancher, county commissioner, and later state senator, Slayton also founded a sheep shearing business and the First Bank of Lavina. The town thrived as an agricultural and economic center, but in June of 1910, Slayton’s wood-frame mercantile burned to the ground. Although the $60,000 business was insured for only one-third its value, Slayton immediately rebuilt a larger, fireproof building. F. W. Handel supplied the exterior brick and the inner layer was fired in a kiln near the Musselshell River. The present two-story mercantile, built in the classic Western commercial style, opened for business in the fall of 1910. Slayton served as postmaster and the store was central to the local community, supplying everything from mail to groceries, school supplies, and horse tack and, after 1916, Ford automobiles, farm implements, and Titan tractors. Slayton, instrumental in the creation of Musselshell County in 1910, was active throughout his life in politics, ranching, and business affairs. He retained interest in the mercantile until his death in 1927. Today the landmark store, still a local gathering place, is a grand example of the Western commercial style of architecture. Its pressed tin ceiling, rolling oak ladders, pot bellied stove and other original features preserve the period ambience of Montana’s homestead era.
From the NRHP plaque at the building