Industry
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In the 1880s Murphy, Maclay and Co. sold everything from flour and fine teas to window glass and blasting powder. Edgar Maclay and John Murphy established the firm with stores in Helena and Fort Benton in 1882. Two years later they sent Worden Wren here to open a branch in a canvas tent when Great Falls was only a few months old. They constructed this stone and brick building in 1886, expanded it in 1888, remodeled it again before 1900, and again sometime before 1929. Later remodels reflected Murphy Maclay’s continued prosperity but disguised the building’s historic character, though the west wall still reveals the original rubble stone construction. Before the railroad arrived in 1887 and expanded the choice of construction material, locally available rubble stone supplied fire-resistant and sturdy building components. By 1891 the one-story stone building housed both the Great Falls National Bank and the Murphy Maclay hardware and grocery store. One of the longest operating businesses in Great Falls, the firm sold hardware from this building from 1886 into the 1960s.
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Great Falls, Montana · United States
