After buying the building in the late 1980s, the owners began restoration in 2004, turning the old building into a nine room themed hotel. The hotel was sufficiently interesting that The Missoulian ran an article on the
on February 01, 2004. The article is reproduced in part below.
Dream place
Couple hopes renovated Broadway Hotel will help promote Philipsburg
February 01, 2004 12:00 am • MICK HOLIEN of the Missoulian
PHILIPSBURG - After teetering on the brink of ruin, a downtown hotel here has undergone a tasteful restoration that has returned it to its elegant roots.
It was a long road back for the Broadway Hotel, having been out of the nightly rental lodging business for some 100 years.
Located at the heart of this quaint old silver mining town, the Broadway Hotel occupies the second story of the J.K. Merrell Building.
Jim and Sue Jenner, documentary producers from Washington state who have been visiting the area for years, bought the immense building in the late 1980s, intending to restore it to its former prominence. The project finally began last summer.
"Creating the Broadway has been a dream of ours for many years," said Jim Jenner, 54. "We believe so much in the future of Philipsburg and feel that comfortable lodgings are sorely needed here."
The ground floor of the 12,000-square-foot building has been home to the H&R Auxiliary Thrift Store for more than a decade, but the second story has been in disrepair since it served as apartments more than 20 years ago.
"This is one of the largest buildings certainly between Missoula and Butte," he said. "This thing is enormous. That's what attracted me years ago."
The Freyschlay-Huffman Company originally started a store at the location in January 1893, but by July they were in trouble, probably because of the silver crash, said Jenner, and liquidated more than $100,000 in inventory from stores at Granite, Combination (near Black Pine) and Philipsburg.
According to county records, Merrell, Patton and Hyde then bought the building.
The hotel is 25 stairs off the town's main street but because it is built into the side of a hill for ease in offloading products, access also can be gained from behind the structure where a small parking lot sits a few steps from the entrance.
For several years during the silver boom, the building was used as a general store and once served as the company store for the Bi-Metallic Mine. In the 1930s when it was a Penny's store, J.C Penny actually served customers in the downstairs space, said Jenner. The second story was converted to lodging around the turn of the century to house hundreds of workers who flocked to the area.
The hotel's nine rooms, which feature private bathrooms, are situated in a circle around the beautiful library but separated by a hallway. The lounge and library, which even features high-speed Internet, offers ample space for reading, playing a board game or just relaxing in casual conversation around a cozy stove.
The impressive 900-square-foot room is cozy, yet could seat 50 people for a meal, 60 theater-style for seminar or handle 125 people for a reception.
"This area was originally the lounge and dining hall and we re-created it so it can be a multipurpose space. That's one of the things we haven't had in town," he said. "We put in a large skylight where one was years ago and restored the old beams."
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