Opened in 1882, the three-story Italianate Grand Union Hotel welcomed weary river travelers to Fort Benton, the Gateway of the Northwest, as a luxurious refuge before they continued to less civilized destinations. It appeared at the end of the steamboat era, when Fort Benton was still an unchallenged commercial hub, but the completion of the Northern Pacific transcontinental line across Montana in 1883 soon diminished the town’s position as a commercial center. Built of soft local brick with intricate corbelling and distinctive windows, the “Waldorf of the West” included a saloon, dining room, a saddle room for cowboys to store their gear in winter, and a secret lookout room where guards supervised gold shipments. A separate ladies’ stairway led to elegant parlors because women never entered rooms adjoining saloons. Each room originally had black walnut, marble-topped furnishings, its own woodstove, and a fancy chimney. Near the docks, the hotel overlooked the arrival of goods ranging from stamp mills to grand pianos, brought by steamboat and transferred to ox-team freight wagons. Architect Thomas Tweedy’s design reflected a prosperous and optimistic town just before the railroad brought disastrous effects to its economy.