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Home My WebLink About128-130 E Main 1985 t ! f ! MON`rANA HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL INVENTORY Legal Description:Original Townsite Lots Portion 7 8/Blk B Address: 128-130 Fast Main Ownership:name: El priyale address: Roll# 77 Frame# 35 ❑ cubfic Box 430 j111 �U�1�L�- VVCF-YU_ _ Historic Name: Fechter -Building 1 Y ? r Common Name: L I B R A R Y �^ t [I estimated Date of Construction: 1918 El documented U f -- Architect: Fred F. Willson fi T —TT- Builder: J 4 I Original Owner: John Fechter Original Uses_ _ HQtP1 and street? 1 Present Use. Research Sources: rT 1 T 1 ❑ abstract of title ❑ city directories I I T El plat ❑ sewer/water permits I f I I w El tax cards El obituaries I I ,L r El building permit El biographies k Sanborn maps—d61AS' 1917 Bibliography: Li > � ) I I Q � Q ._ I LJ _ •_ 11 6A.$1210c ABC 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 three-story commercial structure has a rectangular plan with a bronze or copper canopy with glass insets over the entry to the upper level apartments , a side bay to the main structure. There are unique wood balconies at the rear of the building. The facade is symmetrical and consists of a central front entrance with storefront windows , and 3/1 double-hung windows paired on the second story. The second level windows are surrounded by elaborately detailed terra Gotta mouldings of contrasting colors. The cornice features terra Gotta detailing with free-stanidng spires and gargoyles. The brick construction is finished in terra Gotta detailing and rests on granite cut stone foundation. The flat roof is finished in built=upsaWerials. Th thisoriginal has storefront featured a rectangular bronze canopy a r -- HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Justify how the persons,important events,and/or historical patterns associated with the structure/site and surrounding area lend the property significance. i This property is significant because it is associated with;ia person important to Bozeman's history, Fred F. Willson. Son of General Lester S. Willson, an early Bozeman pioneer, Willson was born in 1877 in Bozeman. He attended Montana State College for two years and graduated from Columbia University in architecture in 1902. He studied for two years abroad and upon his return, Willson practiced with C. S. Haire in Helena and Butte. In his long practice from 1910 to 1956, he designed many.public, commercial and residential buildings. The property was built for John Fechter , and was designed by Fred F. Willson. Fechter, and his father and grandfather before him, operated several saloons, including the well-known Tivoli. When it was first built, shops occupied the first level while the Hotel Fechter was housed in the upper stores. This structure is potentially eligible for the National Register because of its historical associations and because of its architectural significance. 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 materials 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. FName REPARED BY: GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: DAMES °, �Y I CC":pI D ARCHITECTS P r. Acreage: — P. O. BOX 8163 USGs quad: : Date: MISSOULA, MONTANA 59807 UTM's: - r 17 u4 REVISED a Matthew A. Cohen R^Inman, Montana _)fll V nFf`F'Rfthrn Inor 128-130 E. Main 1985 revision Matt Cohen, surveyor The Fechter Hotel is the most architecturally significant of the numerous early 20th century buildings in the district because of the unique, high relief, neo- Gothic Revival style, white glazed terra cotta ornament that covers the facade, contrasted by vertical , staggered bands of red brick. Over the annex entrance survives the last of the several galvanized iron and glass canopies once found in the district. The Fred Willson-designed building is also significant as the first retail home in Bozeman of two of the three major national department store chains to do business in the district, the F.W. Woolworth Co. , and the J.C. Penney Co. With the exception of the storefront, the building retains very high integrity inside and out. Beneath the present New Impressions sign, in additon, may very likely survive the original Tudor-arched transoms of the storefronts and central door, and perhaps even the highly complex transom muntins, as shown in a c. 1918 photograph (see attached photograph) . The hotel was built for John Fechter in 1918 - the same year as the Hotel Baltimore one block to the east - a year that was noted in The WeekV Courier as "one of the best years from the standpoint of building in the history of Bozeman" (The Weekly Courier, May 1, 1918, p. 10) . Of the 86 building permits issued that year for a total of $337,535 of construction, one of the largest was for the Fechter, which cost $50,000. The original ground floor tenant was the F.W. Woolworth Co. , which is shown there both in a c. 1918 photograph (see attached photograph) , and on the 1927 Sanborn Map. By 1933, Woolworth had moved to an empty store in the building at 36 E. Main, and around 1950 had the present Art Deco style facade constructed there (see 36-361/2 E. Main) . The F.W. Woolworth Co. probably moved in 1929, to make way for the next tenant here, the J.C. Penney Co. J.C. Penney in that year bought out the stock of the J.N. McCracken department store (formerly located in the Lovelace Building, 20 E. Main) , and is listed at this address in the 1933 city directory, with J. Henry Bell as manager. In 1937, J.C. Penney moved to 9 E. Main, remodeling that building with the present streamline Moderne facade (see 9 E. Main) . The small annex wedged between the Fechter building and the adjacent building to the east, 136-140 E. Main, was probably built in 1920 and designed by Fred F. Willson as a small rental unit (see Fred Willson Job List, bibliography, job #2028) . The building has very high architectural significance for so small a building. Similarly, the Bozeman (1891, 321 E. Main) , Baltimore (1918, 222-224 E. Main) , and Borter (1929, 105 W. Main) . Hotels all have small adjacent annexes with archi- tectural ornament to match the main buildings. The Fechter annex has an entrance ornamented with glazed terra cotta, Gothic motif paneled reveals that match the main building ornament. A semi-circular galvanized iron and glass marquee, the last of once numerous such marquees in the district, is either the same one that originally hung over the central entrance to the hotel , or a duplicate (see attached photograph, c. 1918) . According to Gardner Waite, the small building was a bakery, and later a cafe, before being converted in the late 1930' s to an entrance vestibule for the upper floors of the Fechter building, which at that time became the Cosner Apartments. Waite believes that the Bozeman Investment Co. may have built the annex. When converted to an entrance vestibule for the Cosner Apartments , which were probably managed by Clarence Cosner, the fine, c. 1938, streamline Moderne sign that hangs perpendicular to the building and displays the name: "Cosner Apartments" , was added. Inside, the simple, Art Deco style stair was added, and linked with the second floor of the Fechter building by a new opening in the east wall of that building. The removal of the stair leading to the upper floors from its original location in the center of the main building to its present location in the annex allowed increased retail space in the ground floor of the main building, currently occupied by New Impressions. Rooms in the Cosner apartment building, actually a rooming house, were available for rent by the day or week. The conversion of the Fechter Hotel to a rooming house coincided with the conversion of the upper floors of several other Main St. blocks for the same purpose, thus fulfilling the demand for inexpensive housing during the Depression. Presently rented predominantly by Montana State University students , the original hotel interior remains largely intact. In contrast to the simple, Art Deco style newer posts of the vestibule stair, the main stair of the hotel , still intact from the second floor up, displays intricate prairie school-influenced ornament. The original hotel rooms, with lowered and transomed doors, as well as hallway sky- lights, also remain intact. Bibliography Datestone/Name stone Sanborn Map, 1927 Charles Vandenhook, interview, 9/7/85 David P. Vaughan, interview, 9/7/85 Gardner C. Waite, interview, 9/24/85 Weekly CourieV May 1 , 1918, p. 10. Application for Sewer Connection, March 20, 1918 Fred Willson Job List: 1920, job #2028 - "Addition to Fechter Hotel - John Fechter - Bozeman" . 1932, job #3213 - "Alts to Fechter Building - John Fechter - Bozeman". 1943, job #4330 - "Alt. to Fechter Bldg - Gamble Stores - Bozeman Investment Co. " I I � . t i _t Il , I{� a i - l i .�,-- AN s, Figure 108: The Hotel Fechter, built in 1918, provided more comfortable accommodations to visitors than automobile parks. (Photo CourteE Museum of the Rockies.) L 4 Ak I r 6Y r �- I� 3 a .1• -a�� 1 �. �r B R C"tC;�7• YigZri LAI Figure 109: The upper levels of the Fechter building facade still displa' the fanciful ornamentation of Fred Willson's 1918 design (Bozeman Historic Resource Survey Photograph.) 98