Oriental Saloon

A one-story wood-frame building stood here between 1897 and 1907, and reflecting the mining town's early hard-drinking culture, it originally housed two saloons. When Swedish immigrants Charles Carlson and George Edman purchased the lot in 1907, Belt's prospects looked strong as the Anaconda Company had expanded its coal mining operation and the town had incorporated as a third-class city in response to an influx of newcomers. Main Street businessmen, including Carlson and Edman, began replacing wooden false-front buildings with more permanent structures, and Carlson and Edman used locally quarried, rough-faced sandstone to construct a two-story commercial block. Its first floor housed the Oriental Saloon, which boasted electric lights, running water, and a bar and back bar of mahogany in a colonial style. Iron pilasters and an iron header allowed the contractor to install large plate-glass windows that brought natural light into the interior, and although the windows are gone, the iron framing remains. During Prohibition, Carlson converted the saloon into a pool hall and then a soft drinks parlor before retiring in 1926, and later businesses there included a butcher shop and a grocery store.

Belt, Montana · United States