Historian Patty Dean, in her meticulously researched and well-illustrated essay, documents the timeline of the design and completion of the Montana Club, placing it in “the context of gentlemen’s clubs internationally.”
The stately building standing on the corner of Sixth and Fuller Avenues in downtown Helena that houses the present Montana Club is the design work of famed architect Cass Gilbert, credited as “Father of the Skyscraper.” Gilbert was commissioned to design the project after a fire in 1903 destroyed the club’s original home.
In this meticulously researched and well-illustrated essay, historian Patty Dean documents the timeline of the design and completion of the building, placing it in “the context of gentlemen’s clubs internationally.”
Upon the project’s completion, the Helena Daily Record praised it as a “magnificent structure complete in every detail of furnishing and equipment from Rathskeller to ‘sky floor’.” Her book contains background information about Gilbert and notes his other projects in the West, including designs for the Northern Pacific Railroad’s train depot in Helena and a railroad hospital in Missoula.
The book is the third in the Montana Architecture Series and was published by Drumlummon Institute on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the Montana Club. Dean previously edited Coming Home: The Historic Built Environment and Landscapes of Butte and Anaconda, Montana for the series. For the past 30 years, the author has worked as a curator for several institutions, including the Montana Historical Society.
– Judy Shafter