Danforth Block

A wood-frame cigar factory and shooting gallery stood here in 1884 until fire destroyed the buildings in 1886, after which owner J. A. Danforth quickly rebuilt in brick. Four years later he added a second story, but the addition was so heavy that it damaged the first floor, leading him to remodel in 1891 and add iron support columns to carry the weight. The flamboyant Gilded Age business block features a distinctively corbelled brick cornice that evokes the top of a fortress. For much of the building’s history, the second floor housed club and card rooms while a saloon occupied the first floor. Bar owners included Democratic political boss John Hogan, who came to Livingston as a Northern Pacific road master and then went into sheep ranching. Hogan purchased the building in 1914, and his ghost sign still marks the north facade’s second story. In 1927, during Prohibition, Herman Bauer, a union activist blackballed by the railroad as an agitator, opened a soft drink parlor. Antlers Bar opened in 1937, four years after Prohibition’s repeal, and operated until 1967.

Livingston, Montana · United States