One of the few buildings to go up in Butte in the 1920s, the Mother Lode Theatre, originally the Fox Theatre, was the design work of the most prestigious architectural firm of the era in Butte, Link and Haire. Initially intended as a replacement for the 1901 Masonic Temple, a decline in the fortunes of the town, and the Masons, is likely what led them to forgo moving into their beautiful building, instead leasing it to the Fox Film Company. A movie theatre from the 1920s through the 1980s, it has been renovated to become a 1,200 seat live performance theatre and its name changed from the Fox Theatre to the Mother Lode Theatre.
As part of a retrospective series on the historic buildings in Butte, the Montana Standard published the following article on the Mother Lode Theatre, number 64 in the series.
Butte 76, No. 64: Mother Lode Theatre here
Jul 18, 2014
Built in 1923, and designed by the architectural firm Link and Haire, the Mother Lode Theatre, 316 W. Park St., is a recognizable Butte icon. The Masonic Temple Association, the original owners, used the six-story building as a temple on one side and the Temple Theater on the other. But the group did not use the space much for pageants. In the 1930s the Masons converted the theater to a movie house then later sold it before it transformed to the Fox Theater. The façade boasts four iconic columns, decorative terra cotta, nine projecting lion heads and decorative iron work with screens on the upper windows. The building symbolizes the power of the Masons and “a huge change in technology” in the form of reinforced concrete, said local architect Mark Reavis. “They had a lot of power and influence,” he added.
From the Montana Standard