1907 East Broadway Thornton Hotel Butte Montana Vintage Postcard
About This Vintage Postcard
Step back into the bustling streets of "The Richest Hill on Earth" with this vibrant colorized postcard featuring the Thornton Hotel on East Broadway in Butte, Montana. Opened in May 1901, the Thornton was a pinnacle of luxury during Butte’s copper boom, famously hosting figures like President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 and Booker T. Washington in 1913. The building's five-story brick facade, accented with elegant stone balconies and a grand cast-iron entrance, reflects the cosmopolitan ambitions of a city that was once the largest between Chicago and San Francisco. This scene captures a lively moment in downtown Butte, complete with early pedestrians and a streetcar passing by the hotel's prominent storefronts.
Details
Era: Divided Back (1907)
City: Butte
State or Region: Montana
Country: United States
Topic: Thornton Hotel, East Broadway, Copper Mining History, Montana Landmarks, Street Scenes
Condition: Circulated
Postage: 1c Green Benjamin Franklin stamp; postmarked October 27, 1907, in Butte, Montana
Address Side: divided back
Orientation: Horizontal (Landscape)
Artist / Photographer: Unknown
Publisher: Unknown (No. 21)
Printer: Unknown
Print Type: Lithograph
Additional Information
The Thornton Hotel, designed by architects White and Lignell, has a storied past—construction was even briefly delayed in 1899 when workers struck a rich vein of copper ore while excavating the foundations. This card features a handwritten message from "Ruby" to Mr. Ed Vincent in Grangeville, Idaho, dated October 1907. Ruby writes: "Hello Ed, Received your pretty postal and was glad to hear from you. We are having a fine time." The postmark is a clear "flag" cancel, a popular style during the early 20th century. The Thornton building transitioned from a hotel to an employees' club for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in 1947 and remains a significant historic landmark in Butte's Uptown district today.
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