Half way between Missoula and Frenchtown on the old Mullan Road was the Cyr Hotel, also known as “Half Way House.” The building was located on the Cyr Ranch, the Cyr’s being a large French immigrant family that settled several parts of the Grass and Frenchtown valleys in the 1870s.
John Cyr built the ranch house (left half) in 1885. In the late 1800s, an addition was constructed (right half) and the former residence began operating as a hotel. By the early 1900s, the place was a full blown roadhouse, complete with bar and dance hall, helping to ease the lives of people traveling to and from the city by horse, coach or buggy.
The last hurrah for the roadhouse was the period around 1908 when the Milwaukee Road was put through. Construction crews provided a brisk trade at the time, but evidently business later fell off resulting in eventual closure of the hotel.
By 1926, when the Sol family purchased the ranch property, the addition had been torn down. The original Cyr ranch house thus became the Sol ranch house which, Lynn (Sol) Moss remembers, had seven bedrooms. “The hotel part was torn down, leaving this beautiful house…it had four 6 foot cherry wood pillars in the living room ..granite counters in the kitchen and an exquisite claw foot bathtub…which came later.”
Joe Sol lived at the ranch house into the 1960s. The Sols sold much of the ranch in 1965. Evidently, the house still stands but sadly is in a state of grave disrepair with broken glass and doors hanging open.
Many thanks to Michael Sol and Mark Sol for photos and information on this lost treasure.
The Sol ranch house in the 1950s
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The ranch house today.
I lived in the house with my mother and father up until the time it was sold. The house had always been heated with wood stoves but in anticipation of me leaving for college, it was decided the stoves should be replaced with a furnace. The first task of the contractor was to dig a partial basement under the house to hold the furnace. The house sat on a rock foundation without even a crawl space of more than a foot. The first day of digging, the contractor came to the door and said that we had a basement and he had just broken through into it. Well, long story short, there was a sizeable rock walled cellar under the house that had evidently served as cool storage for the bar. The entry to it had been covered over when Cyrs remodeled the remaining portion of the hotel into their home. No real “finds” were discovered….just some empty liquor bottles and old newspapers. But it was interesting that our family had lived in that house for 35 years without knowing what was just under the floor.
Although the house is a derelict wreck now, you can still recognize it by the long porch across the front and the 2 big dormers on the second floor that are in the hotel pic. On the first floor, there was a long colonnade with pillars in the living room. On the second floor there was an old coat and hat check room for the dance hall (which was on the 2nd floor of the adjoining saloon that was razed). After we sold the place , I’m told the interior of the upstairs was gutted and made into an apartment(s). After that, there was a fire on the 2nd floor that did considerable damage. Personally, I wish it had burned completely rather than being allowed to simply fall into ruin. I couldn’t stand seeing the place in such neglect and avoided ever going by it after it was sold.
Almost directly across the road from the house is the old Grass Valley grade school where I went 1-8th grade. It’s a reddish orange brick building. It’s now a home but you can tell it was a school house. At the time I started there, we still had now indoor plumbing at the school….2 privies out back and a hand water pump out front. Everyday, we pumped and hauled water to fill a big stone crock with a spigot on it that provided our drinking water and water to wash our hands if needed. The school was built around 1917 I think. It was a 2 room school which showed real foresight since the second room was needed to handle the growing school population….in 1954! Until then enrollment averaged around 16 for the combined grades. For 2 years, I was my class. Because the increase in enrollment (up to 24), indoor plumbing with restrooms was installed. We had the same teacher there for 25 years and she was great.
mark,
who owns the home now? as a little girl we would drive by this house on our way to frenchtown, and though it had started falling apart I fell in love with it.
This house was built by my Great Great Grandfather, John Eloi Cyr, who married Emily Chausses in 1878. John migrated from St. Basile Madawaska, New Brunswick, Canada via Maine, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Canada, South Dakota, and in 1884, with his wife and two daughters (Ina, 5; and Elsie, 1) traveled to Missoula, Montana . They eventually filed for land in Grass Valley. The family grew, with sons Henry (my grandfather) and John Edwin, and another daughter, Adine. The hotel was built in 1888. He ran the hotel from 1888-1905. In 1894 he won first prize for “Best Oats” in the US (and from MT) at The Columbia Exposition in Chicago. The certificate he received is dated 12/27/1894. In 1905 he built “The Cyr House” at 502 Spruce St. in Missoula. John was a proud member of The Society of St. Jean Baptiste., organized June 14th, 1884.
Hi we must be cousins as my father was John Cyr and my grandfather eloi cyr. Iwentwith my father to see his grandfathers old house, very sad it was so neglected. There is a plaque in the field next door about the signing of the Indians treaty. My dad sais he used to play with his Indian friends in the river behind the house. Suzanne cyr peluso