F. J. Shaffer and James Stranahan designed this $40,000 symbol of Helena’s early struggles. The insurance company of Samuel J. Jones built the Richardsonian Romanesque styled building as an advertisement. Atop the façade is a roughly globe shaped ornament with winged salamanders cavorting about it, mythical creatures like phoenixes that fire cannot destroy, while stylized flames lick across the building’s top. Further below, a granite Atlas bears the symbolic burden for the policy holders.
Architects Shaffer and Stranahan must have had more than a passing acquaintance with the work of H.H. Richardson, as this building bears a striking resemblance to Richardson's Crane Library, built in 1883 at Quincy, Massachusetts. Two of the early tenants of the building were the New York Store, one of Helena's early dry goods stores, and John Worth's Atlas Saloon & Billiard Room. By June of 1890 the saloon had already changed hands and by March of 1891 the saloon was again for sale.
One of the early tenants in the building were Realtors/Lawyers with the business name of Floyd-Jones who were promising 500 percent returns on investments. Today, such an offer would reek of scam, but back when new cities were being born, such returns were quite common for the adventurous. Around the time the Atlas Block was completed Floyd-Jones began to place a snowstorm of small ads in the Helena Independent, offering up to 500% return. In the May 28, 1889 issue of the Helena Independent they placed no less than six ads on Page 4 alone.
