Historic preservation spotlight: Six more windows returned to The Montana

May is Historic Preservation Month, and to kick off what will be a busy month of highlighting preservation and restoration efforts in Anaconda we're checking back in with the Anaconda Restoration Association (ARA) and their efforts to bring the former Montana Hotel – now simply "The Montana" – back to its former glory as the jewel in town founder Marcus Daly's crown. 

That jewel just grew six times brighter in the last couple of weeks, with the recent discovery and return of six stained glass windows original to the building – three of which have already been restored and are in place. That's on top of the large stained glass window that had been the centerpiece of the ARA and Anaconda Community Foundation gala in February, though these came from a different source: The basement of the former "Bert and Ernie's" in Great Falls, where they had languished undiscovered for years – until now that they've come full circle, in more ways than one. 

While the saga of the windows dates back to when the building's treasures were auctioned off decades ago, it was in 2018 when word of them reached Anaconda at the Smelter Stack Centennial that marked the return of Smeltermen's Day. Margie Smith – who several years later would stand on the steps of The Montana with her fellow ARA board members to receive a Montana Heritage Keeper award for her work on the Stack Centennial, Smeltermen's Day and the former hotel's restoration – had a family reunion in town for the centennial and many of the attendees were from Great Falls. The reunion included a tour of the building and at one point the topic of conversation turned to the stained glass windows that had once adorned it. 

"They said Bert and Ernie's had some," Smith said, "but then it closed down and was sold." 

The trail went cold, until the window topic came up again when Smith mentioned it to ARA board member Kayleen Kidwell, who got right to work tracing them. 

"The first time she heard about it she called the guy [who bought Bert and Ernie's] the next day," Smith said. 

Kidwell began her quest by finding the address and checking on Montana Cadastral to see who owns it. She called them, then called again, and again, and finally got the name and number of the owner. 

"When I mentioned the windows he said he'd look for them, then later he sent me a photo of two windows we had never seen before," Kidwell said. "So I took them to the board." 

They had expected something similar to the large transom window they'd unveiled at the gala, but these were smaller and more geometric. So Kidwell went onto the Library of Congress site and found what so far has turned out to be the only known historic photo of the building (still with all four stories intact) taken from the Park Avenue side. 

"I zoomed in and saw the square pattern matched the windows in his photo," she said. 

So she reached back out to him, but didn't hear back for another month. In the mean time, Kidwell also had found a photo of a window with the same pattern hanging at the Marcus Daly Mansion in Hamilton, and after confirming it was original to the mansion that was even more proof that this was the style Daly (or his architect) was acquiring for his buildings. 

Finally, she heard back from the owner in mid-April who indicated that all six windows – six, not two – would be going to auction within a matter of days. 

So, after the final step – getting the measurements on the six windows, which matched the differential on the large one they already had – the ARA moved quickly. Kidwell and fellow board members Mike Hammer and Ken Maynard drove up to Great Falls on Easter Monday, delved into the basement of the former Bert and Ernies, came back with windows in hand (or in trailer first), and by the end of the week Maynard, an expert carpenter, had restored two of them and, with assistance from Roger Walker, installed them in their rightful place. 

"Ken has been working very hard to get them stripped, sanded, painted and hung – three so far," Kidwell said. 

Two of the windows though will require a bit more repair, so Sophia Kircos, a specialist in stained glass restoration who lives in Butte, will be coming to look at restoring them, Kidwell said. 

"And we'll be looking for sponsors for all six," she said. 

Kidwell said the ARA is "very grateful to White Belly Properties to get the windows and we're very happy to have them back and in the process of being restored and installed. It's super exciting." 

And there's more in store: Last month, the ARA completed the back section of copper ceiling tiles in the Tammany Ballroom of The Montana, and next month work will begin on the main central portion of the ceiling, which Maynard said would be coffered with a 12-square pattern. 

And, of particularly good news for events in the ballroom, Copper City Sheet Metal recently installed a new heating and air conditioning system courtesy of a grant from the Anaconda Community Foundation. For more information about The Montana and the ARA, visit https://anacondaara.org. 

Ken Maynard on the restoration process:

Sometimes during the writing and editing process, things we’d like to include in the print edition have to be left out for both time and space considerations, but we’d still like to have them published. This is one of those times. Here is our interview with Ken Maynard about the process he undertook to restore the stained glass windows, who documented his work via cellphone photos and video.

“There were a lot of different processes over time. You have to kind of look at each one and almost disassemble it in order to understand how to put it together. The advantage of these is they were in different states of disrepair,” said Maynard, explaining that this allowed him to see the methods that were used at the time of their construction. “One was in pretty good shape so I tackled that one first. You go over the simple things, then you look at the ones that are a bit more damaged in some way that shows the wear.”

As an example of this, Maynard said the first one he worked on still had all the glazing, which he said is the finishing touch to hold the window together. 

“What I discovered on the next one where the glazing was gone is they used little nails to position the window in the frame. Because there was no glazing you could see them. That was something I could replicate with the others,” he said. “For one of the windows, the glass was completely out of the frame. If you just put the glazing in, it wouldn’t have been mechanically secure. Then the backside of the windows, there’s two steel rods that go up and down. They break the window into thirds and they put the two steel rods in – one third, two thirds – then they soldered copper wire to the window, twisted it to these rods to hold it together.” 

This was essential since these windows were originally on the outside, which required them to be better secured due to the elements, Maynard explained.

“Then you get to the frame, and over the years – they’re wood so they deteriorate, and sitting in the basement for I don’t know how long – but exposed to the weather they deteriorate. On one of them, the bottom corner was missing so I had to find a way to repair that, and it was a pretty big chunk. So I built a little frame around it and made an epoxy corner because it’s part of the structure and need to have it secure. I made a form, I made an epoxy to make that corner secure,” he said. “Then you have to strip the old paint off of the frame, and there were as many as four different colors, so you have to strip all that off and it takes three or four applications of industrial stripper to take it down to the bare wood. Then I painted it a flat black on the inside and outside a brick color to make it blend with the brick on the outside of the building.”

All that work, and yet Maynard said one of the real challenges was finding a way to get the windows into the opening. 

“When they put the new windows in the frame, it took up the space where the window is so you can’t take the new frame out, so it worked out that was able to devise a little system to be able to mount these stained glass windows on the outside. That worked better because they’re protected by the clear glass that’s in there and they look just fine. I just had to build a little ledge for them to sit on,” Maynard said. “It worked out pretty good.”

“All in all it’s just a slow process,” he said. And it’s a process that’s still ongoing.

“For this last one [the fourth out of the six windows – the remaining two will require a specialist] it had completely come out of the frame and had kind of folded over and broken those solder joints, so you have to handle it carefully because it’s kind of wiggly. I got it down flat on a large enough table that I have and had the right side down so I was able to press it back into a flat state and reattach those rods with the copper wire so that made it more stable,” he said. “Then what I learned from the other ones is to put the nails in the frame and then glaze it and make it stable in the frame. Then you can go about cleaning all of the lead that was used, the lead strips that surround each of the window panes, clean that all up. I used a steel wool. That shines it up pretty good. Some of the glass was covered in plain dirt, others were covered with a hard film so you have to use a little stronger detergent so you almost end up polishing the glass on both sides. It’s a long process so you keep after it until you get it the way it should be. You just have to be careful and not be in a hurry. But it’s fun because it’s bringing back something that’s 136 years old.”

Maynard compared the techniques he used with car restoration, another of his favorite pastimes.

“It’s been a lot of fun and it’s rewarding to see it come back to life,” he said.