Lavina

The arrival of the Milwaukee Railroad in 1908 established Lavina as an important regional center. D. W. Slayton’s Mercantile and L. C. Lehfeldt’s Adams Hotel were the cornerstone businesses of the bustling community. Slayton and Lehfeldt, along with Arthur C. Bayers, H. J. Ries, and L. Sandsmark, established a bank to serve the growing region. This two-story frame building, built in 1908, suited the new financial institution. In April of 1909, the bank moved its furniture in, installed the safe, and distributed shares. Chartered in 1911, the bank opened a branch in Ryegate and through the first half of the prosperous 1910s aided homesteaders and ranchers. When the first drought descended on the region in 1918, the bank pulled most homesteaders through. Slayton noted in his diary that the bank “charged off a lot of bad notes.” As drought and depression took its toll, the bank—like hundreds of others across Montana—closed in 1923. The sturdy two-story building, however, continued to serve as the post office. As a natural social center, it became the heart of the community where neighbor met neighbor. In 1938, the Freemasons purchased the building and added onto the back, converting the upstairs space to accommodate their lodge meetings. Lavina Lodge #107, founded in 1916, met on the second floor, and, until 1960, the post office occupied the storefront. The Ryegate Temple Lodge #101 and Lavina Lodge #107 combined in 1995 to form Lavina-Temple Lodge #101, prompting careful restoration of this community treasure. The building today, crisp and clean on the streetscape, evokes the ambiance of another era.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

T. C. Power’s stage line established a stop in 1883 where the town of Lavina was born. In 1907, the Milwaukee Road came through attracting new businesses, among them the Slayton Mercantile Co., established in 1908 by Daniel Webster Slayton. A prominent sheep rancher, county commissioner, and later state senator, Slayton also founded a sheep shearing business and the First Bank of Lavina. The town thrived as an agricultural and economic center, but in June of 1910, Slayton’s wood-frame mercantile burned to the ground. Although the $60,000 business was insured for only one-third its value, Slayton immediately rebuilt a larger, fireproof building. F. W. Handel supplied the exterior brick and the inner layer was fired in a kiln near the Musselshell River. The present two-story mercantile, built in the classic Western commercial style, opened for business in the fall of 1910. Slayton served as postmaster and the store was central to the local community, supplying everything from mail to groceries, school supplies, and horse tack and, after 1916, Ford automobiles, farm implements, and Titan tractors. Slayton, instrumental in the creation of Musselshell

County in 1910, was active throughout his life in politics, ranching, and business affairs. He retained interest in the mercantile until his death in 1927. Today the landmark store, still a local gathering place, is a grand example of the Western commercial style of architecture. Its pressed tin ceiling, rolling oak ladders, pot bellied stove and other original features preserve the period ambience of Montana’s homestead era.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Rancher Ludwig C. Lehfeldt sold 33,000 acres of ranch land to the Milwaukee Road in 1907 prompting the relocation of the Lavina townsite. Realizing the need for a hotel, Lehfeldt hired architects Link and Haire—who drew the plans for the 1910 additions to the Montana State Capitol—to design the impressive Colonial Revival style building. Lehfeldt named the hotel, completed for $20,000 in fall 1908, after his friend, Milwaukee Road vice president John Q. Adams. The Adams’ main entrance faced Main Street with a secondary north entrance facing the railroad tracks and depot. It was a first-class establishment offering steam heat, gas lighting, a bar generously stocked with the finest liquors and cigars, an elegant dining room serving fine meals, and a ladies’ withdrawing room on the second floor. Each guest room was beautifully appointed with carpeting, fine furnishings, and a matching china washbowl and pitcher set. Pure linen sheets and down comforters promised a good night’s rest even in the coldest winter weather. The grand two-story hostelry hosted dances and social events in its spacious dining room and lobby and thus became the center of local hospitality. Lavina flourished with the homestead boom but drought, crop failures, and bank closures took their toll. The Adams declined, few guests stayed in its once-opulent rooms, and by the mid-1920s the hotel closed. From the 1930s through the 1970s, the Lutheran Church used the bar area as its chapel. After changing hands several times, restoration began in 2000.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.