Butte, Montana

July 31 - Aug 1, 2020 - Butte, Montana:

It’s a repeat visit to Butte for me, but it’s a favorite place for history and architecture.  The entire uptown historic district is on the National Register of Historic Places. Virtually all the buildings are from the late 1880’s to early 1900’s and are close to their original appearance.  If you appreciate turn of the century architecture and old signs, this is your place.  It’s quite remarkable how unchanged it all is.  Butte is built on a hillside, most streets are going up or down and in places afford great views, especially of the extensive mining area.  Butte was one of the richest Copper mining areas in the US and the city in it’s hey day was like a small version of New York City with many elegant hotels, restaurants, theaters, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butte,_Montana

Beautiful floral garden in uptown district park

The uptown residential areas are also full of noteworthy buildings and businesses if you look around.  As usual, I took lots of photos, many repeats of my last trip in 2015, but in different light and cloud conditions. 

Arriving in town, one of my first stops was Joe’s Pasty Shop, where I had a Pasty, they recommend it with gravy which I’ve never done before, but everything is better with gravy.  It softens up the dough a little, they can sometimes be dry and it adds more flavor.  

There was a small Saturday farmers market in downtown Butte but nothing awfully exciting.  I enjoy walking around the historic area which is about everywhere, walking is the only way to really see things and I need the exercise.  Most of the buildings have informative plaques posted giving the buildings history.  The city is kind of a living history museum. 

Sold from Alaska to Australia !

Fran Johnson's Sport Shop with its nice Elk mural

Located in the old Socialist Hall, might have been a wild site
during the labor riots of 1914

The Hotel Finlen is impressive from any angle

The first beer to arrive after prohibition, A happy day !

The Lincoln Hotel with a great Butte Beer advertisement

So many great old buildings in this town

The exterior has changed little since the early days of the automobile

The Scandia Hall and Butte Beer deserves preference 

I went inside the M & M cafe and casino mainly just to see the inside, its well over 100 years old and is unusual with open table seating in the center and a bar on one side and a restaurant counter on the other side.  The casino is in the rear, these casino are weird, all junky looking with nothing but various video machines.

Not the first pandemic here

I went into the Piccadilly Museum of Transportation in downtown Butte  which wasn't much except many license plates and vintage advertising signs.  Actually the owner and collector's business is selling license plates.

Many rare advertising signs

Love the expressions on the faces of this French sign

All 1938 Montana license plates

I’ve read lots of negative things about Butte, but the historic portion of town is relatively clean, with flower pots on street corners and I see little sign of homelessness, or do they hide them really well ?     

        

I hopped to go on a historical tour, but all were booked and I really wasn’t wanting to be close to a group of tourists anyhow.  The popular tours seem to be the ones where they take you to a bordello or an underground  speakeasy or the old jail where Evil Knevil was once held.  He grew up in Butte and was always a bit on the wild side. 

I’ve covered this south central / south western area of Montana thoroughly, it’s time to move north.  I’ll be heading southwest backtracking somewhat through Big Hole country again before turning north towards Missoula, Montana.