Main Street and Higgins Avenue is one of Missoula’s busiest intersections and it has been since the town’s earliest days. So it should come as little surprise that town founders Francis L. Worden and C. P. Higgins chose to locate their Worden & Company Store at its northwest corner. The pair constructed the stone and brick front building, appropriately known as the Brick Block, between 1871 and 1872. In addition to the Worden store, the building also housed the Missoula National Bank, a saddlery and hardware business, and a grocery and liquor store.

In 1884, fire destroyed the Brick Block, but the location proved attractive enough that a much larger building quickly took its place. The new structure, called the “Daly Block,” housed the D. J. Hennessy Store, and later, the Donohue Store. After 50 years, that building was demolished to make room for the Montgomery Ward department store. Built during an era where Art Deco and Art Moderne styles were prevalent, the Montgomery Ward Store was designed in a more “time-tested” Renaissance Revival styling and is the only such building of that style in downtown Missoula. The store operated until 1971, when it was remodeled for a bank. It now houses the First Montana Bank.

Credits and Sources:

Cohen, Stan. Missoula County Images, volume II. Missoula: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1993.

Koelbel, Lenora. Missoula, The Way It Was: A Portrait of an Early Western Town. Missoula: Gateway Publishing and Printing, 1972.

Mathews, Allan James.  “A Guide to Historic Missoula,”Montana Mainstreets, vol. 6. Helena: Montana Historical Society, 2003.

National Park Service. “National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, Missoula Downtown Historic District,” 2003.

Photographs courtesy of Archives & Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana.