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Home My WebLink About135 E Main 1984 (East Half) rANA HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL INVENTORY I SiteN -� Legal Description:_ Oriptinal Townsite Lots PorLLQ Address: 13 -�East M Ralf) Ownership:name: James Zimbric I 0 private address:public P.O.P Box 789 Roll N 82 Frame N 26 (LN r � Historic Name. Palace Saloon and Billiard Hall L18 R A R Y ; �• �}�. _ Common Name: llnknnwn 6. kJ .. \L ❑ estimated U Date of Construction: 1882 � documented -- - -1-- l -j _ � Architect: Unknown �= T "TTr N Builder: llnknnwn Original Owner: Captain John VT. Smith Original Use: Saloon and Billiards Present Use �Q1llflle�Gial $fracture Research Sources: ❑ abstract of title L city directories I I f I ❑ plat records/maps sewerlwater permits LA.Jr ❑ tax cards obituaries ❑ building permit ❑ biographies ' �-y 1884 L ® Sanborn maps—datea w I Bibliography: > > I Q 1 Il 6ALcoC BASCO PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Describe present appearance of structure/site,then contrast and compare that with it's original appearance. noting additions,alterations,and changes in materials.Discuss significant architectural features. This attached two-story commercial structure has a rectangular plan with a flat overhang protecting the storefront windows. The entrance must be through an adjoining building. There are 1/1 double-hung windows on the upper level , one on either side of a pair of arched double-hungs under an elaborate stained- glass transom. There are carved wood panels forming arches above all the windows. The brick construction features a decorative corbeled brick cornice, and has a flat built-up roof, which lies perpendicular to the street. The entire ground floor (Travertine) has been remodeled obscuring any original details. The original style was Moorish which has been retained on the upper levels. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Justify how the persons,important events,and/or historical patterns associated with the structure/site and surrounding area lend the property significance. This property is significant because it is associated with the early commercial development in Bozeman. When Captain John W. Smith completed the structure that was to house his Palace Saloon and Billiard Hall, it cost a reputed $20,000. Smith was born in Tennessee, came to Montana in 1864, helping to lay out the Bozeman route. In 1879, he returned to settle in Bozeman. The Avant-Courier noted that the saloon was the finest west of Chicago. This structure qualifies as a contributing element within a potential historic district due to its association with the commercial aspect of the Village Phase of Bozeman 's historic/architectural development. INTEGRITY. Assess the degree to which the structurelsite,and surrounding area accurately convey the historical associations of the property. The historic Integrity of this property has been retained due to the survival of original design and continuity of use, setting and location. INFORMATION VALUE: Explain how the extant structure/site may demonstrate or yield information about its historic use or construc- tion. None. FORM PREPARED BY: GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: N,Irnp )AMES R. MCDONALD ARCHITECTS P.C. Acreage: Address:_ P. 0. BOX 8163 USGs ouad: Date:_—M1SKULA. MONTANA 59807 UTM'&___ _ REVISED AUG 19B4 Matthew A. Cohcn Bozeman, Montani i 135 E. [lain 1985 revision Matt Cohen, surveyor Noted in 1883 by Matt Alderson as "The finest saloon west of Chicago" , the architect-designed Palace Saloon and Billiard Hall is today Bozeman's sole example of the High Victorian Gothic style (also known as Ruskinian Gothic) , and retains unique, incised wooden detailing above the windows. Nothing remains of the original , ornate storefront, which had two deeply recessed doors on either side of a central pair of vertical plate glass windows (see attached etching, 1883) . Also missing is the bracketed cornice that one terminated the facade above the present corbelling (see attached etching, c. 1890) . The building was designed by Vreeland & Kenna (who also designed the original 1880 Gallatin County Courthouse and the Bozeman East Side School about the same time - note of which survive) for John W. Smith. It was built at a cost of $20,000, and is one of only two in the district that were built specifically as Saloons, the Tivoli Beer Hall , 17 E. Main, being the other. According to the Sanborn Map of 1884 however, this one had the added distinction of an opera house with a balcony, stage and scenery in the second floor. Both buildings are among the several brick buildings on Main St. erected during the building boom that accompanied the arrival of the railroad in 1883. The Palace Saloon is the center component of a group of three progressively taller buildings, all built between 1882 and 1883, that terminate with the Masonic Temple (137 E. Main) , and that appear to have been consciously planned for an impressive effect. Despite the high praise conferred by Matt Alderson, Smith' s Palace Saloon was short-lived. The Sanborn Map of 1889 indicates the building in use as a harness and buggie shop, with the "balcony used as (a) harness work shop" (Sanborn Map, 1889) . In 1890, the building housed the Northern Pacific Railroad Express Office, as well as a harness and buggie shop (Sanborn Map, 1890) , and in 1891, a beer hall and gambling establishment was again operating in it (Sanborn Map, 1891) . The Sanborn Map of 1904, and all subsequent maps indicate a "Chinese restaurant and lodgings" here - actually a Chinese house of prostitution, according to owner James Zimbric. In the second floor can still be seen red velvet wall- paper, and the markings of wall partitions which have since been removed for several small rooms, each with its own sink. (Another Chinese house of pros- titution was located in the small building behind 201 E. Main) . McCracken' s men' s clothing store expanded from the neighboring 131 E. Main into the ground floor of this building around 1960, which is presumably when the present marquee and sign which spans both storefronts was installed (see 131 E. Main) . Bibliography Alderson, pp. 23 (etching) , 28, 53 Sanborn Maps, 1884, 1889, 1890, 1891 , 1904, 1912, 1927 James Zimbric interview, 9/7/85 i ' S (i - 7r ALA -1-1 ITT \/Vl t�OD W. P/ ISO _ %IIIIII//////' -- .Ic...r• �-- "' 4�- R.1y dttc F+•'�A AYt7 � I M AItINIC IlIAWK, Figure 44: Main Street at Bozeman Avenue ( left to right) : Basinski 's, Smith's Palace Saloon, and the Masonic building (with Bozeman National Bank at the ground level and Masonic Hall above. ) (Bozeman Illus- traat d., c. 1890. ) BREWERY ..v PUBLIC HALL GOTTL111O E37A BLISHMEN7 AND MALT HOUSE DRY HOUSE...MALT HOUSE RESIDENCE J. F. SPEITH Figure 45: Sp i eth and Krug Bozeman Brewery. The brewery and public hall (1883) , designed with elements of the Itallanate Commercial mode of Victorian architecture, still stands ( 1984) on Main Street. (Leeson, History of Montana, 1885. ) 43 1� was the Northern Pacific Depot which--for all the glory associated with the arrival of the railroad--was a modest frame structure. It was described as "squat, squalid and stuffy" on the occasion of Its replacement in 1891 1' by a hipped one—story, horizontal central block with a projecting side wing, I both bays having deep overhanging eaves.21 SALE LI uQE„77� _ �Mr e• „r�th _— Figure. 36: Smith's Palace Saloon as depicted in 1882. (Matt Alderson, Bozeman: A Guide to its Places of Recreation, -M- 1 •r - Figure 37: Smith's Palace Saloon (detail ) in 1983. (Bozeman Historic Resource Survey photograph. ) 39 ,w �1a�` �+��F��