The Bonner Mansion (1891-1960)

 

Bonner Mansion in the 1890s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Built by Edward Bonner, Missoula lumber baron, in 1891, this home occupied the entire block at the corner of Gerald and Conner streets.   Bonner and his wife subsequently gifted it to Lenita Bonner upon her marriage to Dr. Spottswood.  Lenita lived there until 1959, whereupon it went up for sale.   The City of Missoula had an opportunity to buy this magnificent Victorian for $100,000, but it demurred and, as tragically happened to so many wonderful old buildings in the “modern” 1950s and 60s, the Bonner-Spottswood mansion was razed.  The site is now occupied by nondescript apartment buildings and condominiums of no architectural, aesthetic or historic interest.

Spottswood Mansion in June 1927

Spottswood Mansion in 1960, shortly before demolition

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Tommy the Leprechaun (1949-2003)

 

 

 

 
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Tommy the Leprechaun, f/k/a Terry Beard, one of a host of characters enlivening Missoula over the years, was a regular fixture on downtown streets during the last decade of the 20th Century.   Wearing a green “leprechaun” hat and colorful clothes, he’d pose riddles, twist balloon animals, perform occasional magic tricks, and play folk songs on a beat-up guitar, strumming with his thumbless right hand.  His signature greeting to passersby was to offer to grant a wish if they knew the magic word:  ‘‘Phantasmagorical”.

Thank you to B. T. Bolenbaugh for suggesting this article.

The Gem Theater Block (circa 1885 – 1955)

The Gem Theater Block was located at 124 West Front Street.  The block was actually an amalgam of two different brick structures.  A one-story adobe saloon had occupied the front of the lot since sometime prior to 1884.  During the mid-1880s, a two-story brick structure was built on the back of the lot to house the new “Variety Theater.”   Since a person entered the Variety through the saloon, it is reasonable to surmise the type of entertainment the Variety provided.  Indeed one can just imagine the fan-dancing peccadilloes that must have transpired in the dark recesses of that back room.

The old saloon was razed around 1890 and a new two-story addition to the theater was built facing Front Street.  According to one source, by 1893 the Variety Theater had closed and the whole building sat vacant.  A conflicting source (“Missoula, The Way It Was” by Lenora Koelbel) claims that by 1892 the theater was a dance hall/theater called “The Gem”, which burned that year. At any rate, by 1902, a saloon again inhabited the front of the building, but the theater apparently sat unused from around 1893 until sometime between 1902 and 1905, when the Gem Theater, a vaudeville house, was inaugurated. According to Koebel, Al Jolson while playing at the Wilma sometime during the 1920s reminisced about playing at an old honkytonk in Missoula, the Gem. It is unclear when the Gem Theater folded, but by 1912 the whole building appears to have been used as a saloon.

Then, sometime before 1921, the Gem Theater block was converted to use as a creamery. Garden City Dairies occupied the building for the next 30 years.

In the early 1950s, the Gem building was converted again, this time for use as a parking garage for the Florence Hotel.

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Finally, in 1955, the building was razed to make way for the new Florence parking annex.

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The annex had car lifts to allow cars to be parked on the upper floor; hence the name – “Pigeon Hole.”   Pigeon Hole Parking was certainly a far cry from the glory days of the old theater, save perhaps for the name.

 

A River Ran By It

Prior to 1962, a channel of the Clark Fork River ran by the base of the Wilma Building.   It is rumored residents of buildings backing on the channel used it as a garbage disposal. Although we assume residents of the Wilma were a cut above, this was a time before environmental awareness.  Certainly, newspaper, rinds and coffee grounds raining down from the 8th floor would have made quite a sight.

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1941 aerial photo of downtown Missoula showing the Clark Fork running in two channels

1941 aerial photo of downtown Missoula showing the Clark Fork running in two channels. The Wilma Building can be seen along the bank just about dead center in the image.

 

The Harnois Theater / Liberty Theater / Liberty Lanes (1909 – circa 1965)

Harnois Theater around 1910

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A virtually lost piece of Missoula History was the Harnois Theater.  Located in what is now a parking lot in the 200 block of East Main, it was built in 1909 for local impressario, Charles Harnois.  Designed by architect A.J. Gibson with the interior décor completed by the Twin City Scenic Studio, Missoula’s premier opera house of the era was comprised of three floors with nine exits, seated up to 1200 people and housed a 58 feet wide, 35 feet deep and 65 feet high stage.

Unfortunately, the theater was built just as feature length movies were about to hit the country. Mr. Harnois soon realized Missoula’s taste for this new entertainment would eclipse its desire for vaudeville and light opera, and therefore sold out in 1914.  The new owners changed the name to the Missoula Theater and, by the early 1920s the building, now a well established movie house, had been renamed the Liberty Theater.  By the early 1940s, the theater had closed and the Harnois was converted to Liberty Lanes, a bowling alley.  When Liberty Lanes moved to new quarters in the 1960s, the building was razed.

A curious side note: the theater was tangentially involved in an important piece of the history of the struggle for civil liberties.  Shortly after it opened, Harnois rented the basement to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Jack Jones of the IWW (the Wobblies).  From there, Flynn and Jones orchestrated the IWW’s first free-speech battle using non-violent civil disobedience.

The city had passed an ordinance disallowing the IWW from broadcasting its positions to the public through the mouths of streetcorner soapbox speakers. Accordingly, hundreds of supporters from across the northwest were called upon to ride the rails to Missoula to exercise their right to speak publicly.  So many came to speak and be arrested that the city and county jails were clogged for weeks.  The city’s resources stretched to the breaking point, it finally had to back down and repeal the ordinance.

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May 12, 1969: Explosion Rocks the Wilma

 

The Missoulian May 13, 1969


 
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The Missoulan May 14, 1969

The last sentence reads, “Police have the metal and are investigating the incident.”   Evidently, the perps were never apprehended.  We hope the Wilma’s insurance covered those 47 broken windows.

It is interesting to note that in 1969, these explosions merited only two short items on the Missoulian’s second page, the second humorously characterized.  One can just imagine the panic, pandemonium and ongoing local, state and federal investigations that would result today should a similar event occur.

Out thanks to J. F. McDonough for this contribution.

Edna Wilma Simons Sharp (1895-1954)

This portrait was painted in 1919.

Edna Wilma was born in Collinsville, Kentucky in 1895. She began her career as a light opera singer in Kentucky. Around 1910, she and her sister Edith (Sid) started touring together. The Wilma Sisters were a hit, earning top billing on the Vaudeville circuit. They were a common act at the Tavern Cafe in Missoula, performing a variety of light operas, musical comedies and folklore. Later, Wilma started a solo career, starring in Wild West shows across the northwestern United States. She met her first husband, William A. (Wild Billy) Simons, while performing in one of his shows in Idaho. The couple married in 1921, just after Simons had completed construction of his newest Montana theater. Formerly called the Snead-Simons building, he re-named it The Wilma after his bride.

Following the wedding, the Simons traveled the Northwest, putting on Wild West shows as a way to bring a rugged Montana culture to the cities of Idaho and Oregon. They built a home in Wallace, Idaho. However after Billy suffered a stroke they maintained two residences in Montana, a large apartment in the Wilma Building in Missoula and a cabin at Lolo Hot Springs. They would travel to the latter from Missoula by horse and wagon. This voyage required them to cross Lolo Creek some 27 times. Edna took Billy there for the warm sulpher springs water that was believed to help with stroke related injuries.

After Billy’s death in 1937, Edna Wilma Simons became president and treasurer of the William A. Simons Amusement Co. At the time, the company included a chain of thirty one theaters across Montana, Idaho and Alaska. For the sum of $150,000, Edna Wilma Simons constructed a large theater in Wallace, Idaho that she dedicated to William A. Simons’ memory. She persevered and thrived through the depression and war years, building a total of nine new theaters. A shrewd businesswoman, she also purchased a small interest in the Daily Meat Co., as well as several ranches where she raised livestock.

On November 3, 1950, Edna was re-married, to handsome navy veteran, Edward Sharp, 21 years her junior, in New York City’s historic Little Church Around The Corner. Together they maintained the W.A. Simons Amusement Company until her death in 1954. While managing her business ventures, she continued singing and performing, holding large parties and events in the spacious dining room of the Wilma. Eddie and Edna shared a love of music, as he was a pianist and vocalist. They made several recordings together (preserved by David B. Keith). The couple traveled around New York to gather decoration ideas for remodeling the Wilma Theatre. The Chapel of the Dove, created by Eddie in 1982 in the basement of the Wilma, was a mirror image of the chapel where their wedding had taken place.

Near the end of her life, Edna Wilma Simons Sharp still was an active member of the community, volunteering for Red Cross, staying an avid member of the Episcopal Church and serving on numerous bond and relief drives. She died in her bed in the arms of Edward on July 25, 1954, leaving the business to Sharp and hefty contributions to the Shodair Children’s Hospital in Helena, Montana.

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Edna’s Memorial

Edna's Marker

For many years, Eddie Sharp, Edna Wilma’s second husband, maintained a heated glass case atop her headstone in the Missoula Cemetery. This oral jam acts speedier, when it goes down in your circulatory system. viagra prices online Signs & Symptoms of Prostate Cancer Early and then it sample viagra prescription is possible to treat it using a radiotherapy and surgery. Upon being satisfied with cialis 5mg the effects you can face with unprescribed sudden medications of erectile dysfunction. Thus, we should be thankful to the government and FDA to grant us the same quality and formulation in the generic form so that no confusion sildenafil prescription is created later on.   Fresh flowers were placed inside year round.    The marker, without flowers since his death, is clearly in need of attention.   We hope to have it cleaned this spring.

In Honour of Edward and Edna Wilma Simons Sharp

Strange to begin this blog on the Ides of March!  But that is the way it happened to work out and perhaps appropriately, for there are many stories about Missoula and her denizens that do truly surprise.  These stories today remain largely obscure, and so we hope this space may provide a more permanent, ongoing record of the fascinating people and tales Missoula history has to offer.  Which brings me to the people we honor today.

Edna Wilma head oval crop

Edna WIlma Simons Sharp

Eddie Sharp head oval crop

Edward Sharp

 

 

 

 

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Edna WIlma, for whom vaudeville entrepreneur husband Billy Simons built the Wilma Theater, and her second husband Edward “Eddie” Sharp, who some may recall as the affable man with a pigeon on his shoulder taking tickets at the WIlma Theater of the Dove, are perhaps two of the most interesting figures of Missoula’s not-so-distant past.  Seldom mentioned in celebrations of Missoula’s history, even bypassed in Missoula’s annual graveyard walk, they seem to have slipped into obscurity.  Such an egregious ellipsis must be rectified, and so we hereby pay tribute to these erstwhile proprietors of Missoula’s premier theater today, with the creation and naming of this website.

We welcome any comments, stories and other submissions relevant to the purposes of this site.