Palace Bar
By editor
Whitefish, Flathead County, Montana
Records are incomplete, but the building seems always to have sold something to drink. From 1915 to 1919 it housed the Kalispell Malting and Brewing Co.; afterward it settled into life as the Palace Bar, a small-town western watering hole. Local lore puts a brothel on the top floor in early days. Later owners included a city council member and an attorney who became a district judge and federal magistrate—respectability layered over an older reputation.
The backbar is the building’s heirloom: said to have come up the Missouri by steamer to Fort Benton, overland to Flathead Lake, and up the lake to Demersville. In later years the Palace was famous for mouse races—live mice auctioned to patrons and sent along parallel ropes on an eight-foot course, winners photographed in a circle of glory.
Not much pretension, a century of continuity, and a piece of furniture with a river résumé. That is a Whitefish kind of landmark.
See also
- Pastime Pool Hall at Whitefish, Flathead County
- Cadillac Hotel at Whitefish, Flathead County
- Duncan Samson Block at Whitefish, Flathead County
