The center and right are examples of Corbin's "Brocade" designs, They are regarded by most as the most refined and highest detailed of the Brocade patterns. All three pieces were manufactured circa 1887, and were available until 1901.

The center example is the type used on the many exterior doors and heavy traffic areas. There were approximately 12 sets of these, and are highly collectible in Helena. The pattern on the right is considered the "common", though I would still give almost anything to own it. It was the type of pattern seen throughout the Hotel for the majority of room doors
and closets.

On the left, the heavy bronze main entry set has the "Irish Leaf" pattern. It was used on all major door work, including the two sets of massive 300lb pocket doors that separated the ladies parlor on the west end of the building and the men's parlor on the east. This bronze piece is the heaviest set of hardware I know of, weighing in at just under 13 lbs.

China from the Broadwater Hotel. This early everyday service was Red Lace Semi-Vitreous from the Greenwood Ceramic Co. of Trenton, NJ. Three small cases of this china were sold at the 1974 auction.

On more formal occasions, tables were set with this pattern in green, but augmented by the addition of a large ornate letter B. Pieces of the green set are very rare today.

Hilda Potter, born in 1906, worked in the hotel as a waitress in 1934 while living in Rimini. She told me some of her adventures….”We broke a lot of these”, she told me holding a large Red Lace dinner platter. “You could be clumsy and get away with it, if you had looks".

Hilda went to the hotel a few days after the 1935 earthquake to help staff clean up inside. “It was a mess”, she said, “glass everywhere and some of the best stuff all over the floor. We took most of the rubbish and broken pottery out the back and threw it in by the creek.”

Hilda was a great lady with some amazing stories, she passed a few
years ago, in her late 90s, but I will always remember her mischievous early days at the hotel. She was a bit of a kleptomaniac in her day, having amassed a small fortune in trinkets she acquired thorough her life. She was a really cool lady.

The hotel operation was eventually downsized, and began catering primarily to local residents. For some years, a restaurant operated out of the hotel dining room, while the rest of the building was closed off. The truncated hotel eventually became a kind of glorified roadhouse, with neon lights, gambling and dancing. Even that couldn't save it when the State of Montana cracked down on gambling in 1941. There was nothing left to do but close it.

During World War II, there was a move to renovate the complex with Federal money for use as a rest and recuperation facility for returning soldiers. A $100,000 appropriation was negotiated by the Mayor of Helena and the Commander of the First Special Service Force at Fort Harrison, but the plan was vetoed by the Helena Chamber of Commerce.

In January of 1945, two Lewis & Clark County Legislators announced that they would present a resolution asking the assembly to investigate the feasibility of converting the hotel into a home for the senile aged, in hopes of alleviating overcrowding at the state hospital in Warm Springs. This proposal did not come to fruition.

In November of 1945, the 180-acre property was acquired by miner Norman Rogers (1907-1993). At the time, Rogers announced plans to remodel and open the hotel and the plunge. He did put a new roof on the hotel, but that was to be the extent of any conservation work. He used the hotel and grounds primarily as a storage facility and dumping ground for scrap.

In July of 1946, Rogers threaded heavy steel cables through the windows of the natatorium, attached them to a bulldozer, and began pulling the structure down, leaving the gigantic pool open to the elements. There were rumors that the timbers and cedar paneling of the plunge were subsequently sold for firewood. As late as 1948, Rogers claimed that the plunge would soon re-open, but that never came to pass.

Throughout the years, Rogers' hostile "No Trespassing" attitude was well-known to his neighbors, and to researchers who vainly sought his cooperation in documenting the history of the Broadwater.
In 1957, Rogers made an exception and allowed a Helena native, movie star Gary Cooper, to wander the grounds and reminisce. Those without such caché were sternly turned away.

In 1974, Norman Rogers put the remaining contents and salvageable parts of the hotel up for public auction. It has since been learned that not everything represented in the auction as being part of the Broadwater actually was. Downtown Helena was undergoing "Urban Renewal" in 1974, and some architectural details from demolished Victorian buildings found their way into the Broadwater auction. Assisting today in correctly identifying Broadwater artifacts is Scott Nelson of The Bridgeworks Conservancy.

The observation tower on auction day, 1974.
COURTESY OF SCOTT NELSON - THE BRIDGEWORKS CONSERVANCY

Auction day, 1974.
COURTESY OF SCOTT NELSON - THE BRIDGEWORKS CONSERVANCY

The hotel on auction day, 1974.
COURTESY OF SCOTT NELSON - THE BRIDGEWORKS CONSERVANCY

Most of the hotel structure was demolished in 1976, and demolition was completed by 1989. All but three of the original buildings, the observation tower, and the west copula, are gone. The original structures still standing on the grounds are the stone stable, the billiards room (which was part of the hotel itself), and the carriage house.

The steepled cupola was purchased at the auction by father and son Joseph B. and Joseph E. Reber, who donated it to Lewis and Clark County. It was moved to the east side of Helena, where it fell into disrepair. It was refurbished in 2000 and placed in a small park just off Colonial Drive, near Smith School. The west cupola was obtained in 1976 by the Archie Bray Foundation, a world-class ceramics studio located about a mile from the Broadwater. The cupola may be visited on the Foundation grounds. View these remaining structures on the "The Broadwater Today" page.

Today, the land once occupied by the Broadwater is owned by Helena resident, and former Montana Governor, Tim Babcock. He has received praise for restoring and maintaining landscaping on the site. Babcock often holds outdoor soirees for GOP candidates on the spacious grounds.