Perched directly above the Orange Street underpass along North First Street is the old Pacific Fruit and Produce Building. This brick building with three tiered, arched windows has continued to house local industry for over a hundred years, now operating as the Northside facility of the Kettlehouse Brewing Company.

As Missoula expanded as a center for trade in the 1890s and the early twentieth century, a variety of warehouses cropped up along the Northern Pacific Railroad. Landowners with large holdings around Missoula and in the Bitterroot Valley increased agricultural production, including fruit and vegetable farming. The Orchard Homes subdivision on the city’s western edge, for instance, provided for most of the city’s fruit and vegetable demands, aiding the city’s self-sufficiency and commercial success at the turn of the century. Built circa 1909, the Lindsay Produce Company Building served as a railroad staging point for fruit and produce, including Bitterroot Valley apples headed eastward along the Northern Pacific line. The company name eventually changed to the Pacific Fruit and Produce Company. In 1939, the Orange Street underpass was constructed beneath the building to provide easier access to downtown Missoula for Northside residents.

In 2009, Kettlehouse Brewing Company reopened the brick building as a beer brewing and canning facility, taking advantage of the vintage warehouse space to build an expansive taproom.

Credits and Sources:

Cohen, Stan. Missoula County Images. Missoula, Mont.: Pictorial Histories Pub., 1993.

KettleHouse Brewing Company. http://kettlehouse.com/. Accessed April 30, 2015.

Mathews, Allan James. A Guide to Historic Missoula. Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 2002.

National Register of Historic Places, “Northside Missoula Railroad Historic District,”Missoula, Missoula County, Montana.

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