Central Meat Market - Lewistown, MT
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member T0SHEA
N 47° 03.944 W 109° 25.531
12T E 619552 N 5213672
Built by a German immigrant stone mason, the Laux Building, strangely, is faced with brick.
Waymark Code: WMXTFQ
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 02/24/2018
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member Geojeepsters
Views: 1
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This may not seem quite as strange when one discovers that the remainder of the building is build of rubble sandstone, a very common practice in Lewistown in 1905, the year the Laux Building was erected, given the ready availability of native sandstone barely a stone's throw away.

Built as an income property by Philip Laux, the first business to move into the new building was the Central Meat Market, operated by the Abel Brothers who would go on to build a large butcher shop and refrigeration plant three blocks west on Main Street. The upper floor was built as residences, the Acme Rooming House.

This is one of the ads placed by the Abel brothers while they were in the Laux Building, placed on Page 2 of the April 24, 1906 edition of the Fergus County Argus.

AD goes Here
Laux Building The Main Street lots that N. M. Erickson was selling for T. C. Power in 1885 for $50 and $75 (corner lot) were priced from $2500 to $12,000 by 1905, a good indication of the development of the town in a short period of time and of the success possible to the early investors in commercial property.

German born Philip Laux came to Montana in 1885 and worked in a stone quarry in Helena. Most likely one of the earliest stone builders, he located in Lewistown in 1890 and acquired considerable business and residential property. Philip and his brother John, also a masonry contractor, built many masonry buildings in Lewistown, including the Brewery (1894), the first Power Mercantile Co. building, the Warr buildings and the May Apartments.

The Laux building housed the Central Meat Market (Abel Brothers, proprietors), the Blue Goose Saloon (Dieziger and Osmers), and the Acme Rooming House ("Baths, Steam Heat, Thoroughly Modern and Convenient").

A two story flat roof commercial structure with a brick façade characterized by small penetrations with round arch heads on the second level and larger arcaded arches above large openings on the first level. The structure is four bays in width expressed by four pairs of arched windows on the second floor and four large single arches on the first floor. The first floor work has been executed during a recent renovation; the upper floor is original construction. The façade is all brick; there is no entablature. There are corbel tables at the roof line and the window heads have projected brick archivolts at the extrados of the arch that are imposted at the springline. The renovated arches at the first floor employ the same archivolt detailing as the windows above. The back of the building and the foundation are rubble stone.
From the NRHP Nomination Form, Site# 145
LAUX BUILDING

Philip Laux came to Montana in 1885 from Germany and worked in a Helena stone quarry until he relocated to Lewistown in 1890. Two of the earliest stone builders in Lewistown, brothers John and Philip Laux built many local buildings. This 1905 building illustrates the use of mixed architectural styles along Lewistown’s Main Street. The building functioned primarily as a saloon in its early years. Henry Osmers operated the Blue Goose Saloon at 216 West Main from 1910 until 1918 when Montana officially went dry. When Prohibition forced the closure of all saloons, the Laux building served as a billiards parlor, clothing store, and rooming house until the end of Prohibition in 1933. The Acme Rooming House, boasting “Baths, Steam Heat, thoroughly Modern and Convenient,” operated upstairs from 1916 until 1975. The Empire Café opened in the mid-1940s.
From the NRHP plaque at the building
Name of publication (required):
Fergus County Argus

Date of Publication (required):
April 24, 1906

Does the ad identify the location of the company?: no

Web URL to additional proof of location or additional information.: [Web Link]
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