It started with a train.

Three stories of brick on the bluff above the Milwaukee Road depot, built to put up the railroad’s passengers and crews. Its opening kicked off commercial growth on the south side of the river.

Locals have called the upper floors “the Montaignes” for decades.

Postcard of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul passenger depot in Missoula, with a train at the platform and carriages out front
The Milwaukee Road depot. The 1909 announcement put the Penwell “right across the street.”Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana

The corner, the day it opened

Excavation finished in April 1909. A year later the Walt Drug Company, Penwell Hardware and the Penwell Cafe were open downstairs, with hotel rooms above.

The Penwell Block in 1910: three stories at the corner, with the Walt Drug Company, Penwell Hardware, the Penwell Hotel sign and the Penwell Cafe along the street
The Penwell Block at Higgins and South Third, 1910. Houde Collection.Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana
Newspaper clipping headlined Excavation Work Finished for New Penwell Building, with a drawing of the planned building
April 8, 1909. Excavation finished, with a drawing of the building to come, signed J. Kennedy.Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana
Panoramic photo of early Missoula across the Clark Fork, with the Milwaukee depot tower at left, the Higgins Avenue bridge and snow on the mountains
Across the Clark Fork toward downtown, with the Milwaukee depot at left and the Higgins Avenue Bridge in the middle.Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana