The Place:
The Thornton was one of many buildings in Butte designed by H. M. Patterson, at the time Butte's most influential and prolific architect. Given the rate at which Butte was growing at that time, we imagine that Patterson was one busy fellow. The date stone at the building's cornice indicates it to have been built, or at least begun, in 1890.
Though not a particularly striking building, its Richardsonian Romanesque features include the mixture of brick and rusticated stone, both Roman and flattened arches over its upper floor windows and stone panels in each of the three bays at the cornice, the outer two decorated with floral motifs, the centre one containing a banner with the date of construction in its centre.
The Person:
Apparently the name of the hotel, Thornton, came about in honor of a Civil War veteran, Confederate "Colonel" J. C. C. Thornton (John Caldwell Calhoun "Coon" Thornton [1834 - 1887]), who died in 1887, three years prior to the construction of his namesake hotel. Calhoun was one of scores of Confederate recruiters sent behind Federal lines in Missouri in the winter of 1863-1864 to round up and sign up as many southern men as they could. Calhoun, apparently, was one of the more successful of them, returning with quite a number of new recruits. Thornton was a veteran of the First Battle of Fredericksburg, Carthage, Lexington, Wilson's Creek, Camden Point and Pea Ridge, if not others. After the war in 1865 he went to Deer Lodge, Montana, and in 1876 moved to Butte, Montana where he was active in mining interests. He died in Butte on September 15, 1887. A native of Clay County, Missouri, he was called “Colonel” during the war.
Strangely, though we know the name of the person after whom the hotel was named, we have no idea who built it or who owned it. Next door, on the east side of this hotel, is another much larger hotel, also named "Thornton", now known as the "Thornton Block", which opened in 1901.
THORNTON HOTEL
The emerging talent of architect H. M. Patterson is evident in this early example of his work, built circa 1890. Named for prominent local resident and Civil War veteran Colonel J. C. C. Thornton (who died in 1887), the stately hotel featured first-floor commercial space and upper-level apartments. Patterson’s distinctive Richardsonian Romanesque-inspired style here includes grand third-floor arches and the mixed textures of brick and stone on the façade, elements that were soon to invigorate Butte’s streetscape. The first-floor interior boasts an open oak staircase, cast-iron columns, and ornate tin ceiling, which no doubt impressed hotel guests.
From the NRHP plaque at the building