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 Penwell Building - Helena, MT Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 46° 35.371 W 112° 02.384
12T E 420350 N 5160075
Along the north side of 6th Avenue in downtown Helena, the Penwell Building is just west of the iconic Montana club, (re)built a year prior to the Penwell Building.
Waymark Code: WM10A39
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 03/30/2019
Views: 0
The Place:
One of several buildings to go up in Helena's 1906-07 mini building boom, the Penwell Building is very typical of the era. Two story in height, it is primarily of brick facing with stone trim on the ground floor. The overhanging Italianate style eave has large ogee brackets and heavy modillions, below which is a line of brick corbelling. Quoins surround each of the second story windows, created with orange colored bricks to contrast with the red bricks of the façade.
Built to house various retail businesses on the ground floor and office space above, Lewis Penwell, owner of the building, found a use for the basement, as well. From the following short excerpt we see that he moved his newspaper, the Western Progressive Weekly, into the basement in June of 1934.
Following a negotiation, covering a period of two weeks, Mr. Lewis Penwell, publisher of the Western Progressive weekly newspaper of Helena for the past two years, bought the equipment pf the Acme print shop at Bozeman from Frank L. Benepe Jr., Friday...
...The equipment will be installed in the basement of the Penwell building, in Helena, Where the new Progressive shop is to be located.
From the Dillon Examiner.
Lewis PENWELL
Lewis Penwell (1869-1948) was a Helena, Montana, attorney, politician, and sheep rancher active in the Northwest Development League and the Western Governors' Special Tour of 1911. Penwell was President of the Independent Publishing Co., publishers of the Helena Independent newspaper, and served as U. S. Collector of Internal Revenue for Montana for fourteen years. He was also involved in state politics, and from 1932 to 1937 published The Western Progressive, a liberal farm-labor weekly newspaper. Penwell died in Tempe, Arizona in 1948, and is buried in Helena's Forestvale Cemetery.
The Penwell papers (1883-1959), which include correspondence, clippings, and miscellaneous materials of Lewis Penwell, Clare Avery Penwell, Fred Penwell, Sam Garvin, and Eva Ash Garvin, are located in the Montana Historical Society. In 1916, Charles T. Howland sold the San Clemente Island sheep operation to Lewis Penwell, including 25,000 sheep, stallions, mules, and jacks. When the Navy took over in 1934, the sheep were removed to Delano, California. Goats remained.
From Islapedia
It seems, though, that Mr. Penwell didn't play well with others, as, in the 1930s, he used his newspaper, in conjunction with his position as U.S. collector of Internal Revenue, to extort overpriced advertising in his newspaper from advertisers of liquor to be sold in Montana. His scheme may have lasted for awhile, apparently from the time the paper moved into this building, but was finally exposed in January of 1936. Read on.
Liquor Ad Racket Is Stopped By Governor Holt
January 02, 1936, Page 1 | Fallon County Times
Governor Elmer Holt has taken the initial step to stop the liquor advertising racket in Montana, it was disclosed at the executive offices today when a letter was made public which had been sent
to Henry A. Woare, secretary or the Montana State Press association, in response to a request from
Woare for a definition of the policies of the liquor control board with regard to the placing of liquor advertising in the papers of the state...
..."Replying to your letter of Dec. 18, 1936, concerning advertising of distillers and dealers in liquors sold by the state liquor stores, I have consulted with the other two members of the board, and we are in unanimous agreement that the board has nothing to do with the designation of newspapers in which advertising shall be placed. Orders for liquor will not be made conditional upon the placing of advertising with any particular publications. So far as the board is concerned, all newspapers in Montana are entitled to the same right to sell advertising space upon its merit as an advertising medium without interference from the board."...
...The paper complained of by members of the State Press association is The Western Progressive, a tabloid weekly published in Helena under the direction of Lewis Penwell, U. S. collector of Internal revenue. For almost two years advertising agencies have been given to understand that if they wanted orders for liquor from the State of Montana, they had to give The Western Progressive a large amount of advertising. If they failed to advertise, their representatives were told, no more orders could be expected.
“We do not want to advertise in The Progressive," said the vice president of a big New York advertising agency, "but our clients have received word from the liquor control board of Montana that we must place advertising in The Progressive, or we will get no more orders. It is purely a matter of policy—not business nor advertising—but we have our orders and we have to place the advertising in The Progressive and pay their outrageous rates."
The Western Progressive has been receiving $1.51 per column inch for liquor advertising, almost
double the rate charged by such papers as The Billings Gazette and the Great Falls Tribune, which
have twice the circulation of The Progressive. The Helena papers charge only one third the rate exacted from the distillers and liquor dealers by The Progressive and both have about the same circulation as The Progressive, under 10,000 copies.
The last issue of The Western Progressive carried 479 inches of liquor advertising — it had nothing else — netting Mr. Penwell and his associates $437.66 or more than than the entire income of the average first class country weekly for an entire month.
From the Fallon County Times
Year it was dedicated: 1906
Location of Coordinates: At the building
Related Web address (if available): [Web Link]
Type of place/structure you are waymarking: Building
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