What's better than designing a new building from scratch? Working with a beautiful old building! Just a few weeks ago I got to spend a beautiful summer afternoon in Fort Benton, Montana. After lunch at "Wakeup Cup" (highly recommended), I met up with a local building owner to walk and crawl through the 1912 J.J. McGraw Buidling. What a beautiful location downtown, overlooking the Missouri River where steamboats once finished their journey up the river. Like many historic buildings this one had experienced many lives and additions, with more than a few Wild West and Prohibition stories. Only a few years after starting as the J.J. McGraw Club it was turned into a theater, with a number of modifications. Currently we're on the quest to uncover as much of the original as possible.
Wanted: If you have any old pictures of Downtown Fort Benton in this era, or know of more stories about this building, please let us know!
Current Storefront:
Original Storefront?
Some hidden treasures from within the structure:
And an old postcard (too far west to see this building)
