Deer Lodge in Powell County, Montana — The American West (Mountains)
N.J. (Nick) Bielenberg Home
Photographed by Barry Swackhamer, August 7, 2022
1. N.J. (Nick) Bielenberg Home Marker
Inscription.
Pioneer stockman, financier, and mining investor Nick Bielenberg came to Montana via Fort Benton in 1865. He, his brothers John and Charles, and half-brother Conrad Kohrs were all butchers by trade. They eventually settled in Deer Lodge. During the era of the Montana cattle barons, the brothers were involved in large-scale cattle operations. Among many business ventures, Nick Bielenberg established a wholesale meat business in Butte that became famous throughout the Northwest for pioneering cold storage methods. A prominent, progressive member of the Deer Lodge community, Bielenberg was one of the first members of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, brought some of the first livestock into the Deer Lodge Valley, and pioneered Montana’s sheep industry. Bielenberg built this outstanding Craftsman style home in 1910, exchanging his elegant Victorian mansion for the less pretentious comfort of a “modern” bungalow. Its brick came by rail from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a contractor brought in from St. Paul, Minnesota, supervised the masons and carpenters. Broad sweeping eaves with projecting rafters, bands of windows, and the
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use of natural materials speak to the Craftsman style. Bielenberg’s trophies, placed in the glassed-in gable upon completion of the home, add a personal footnote. Oak-framed arched doorways, handsome oak finishing, and original brass fixtures grace the interior where the Bielenbergs entertained such famous guests as artist Edgar S. Paxson, Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, actor Gary Cooper, and pioneer minister Reverend William Wesley Van Orsdel.
Location. 46° 23.865′ N, 112° 43.61′ W. Marker is in Deer Lodge, Montana, in Powell County. It is at the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue and Clagett Street, on the left when traveling east on Milwaukee Avenue. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 801 Milwaukee Avenue, Deer Lodge MT 59722, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker
Photographed by Barry Swackhamer, August 7, 2022
2. N.J. (Nick) Bielenberg Home and Marker
is in andspecifically outhwest Montana, in Gold West Country, in Mining Country. It is also in the American Mountain West and in the Lewis & Clark Corridor. Globally, it is in North America, the Rocky Mountains, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once Rupert’s Land and also the Louisiana Purchase.
Credits. This page was last revised on November 10, 2022. It was originally submitted on November 10, 2022, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California. This page has been viewed 241 times since then and 28 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3. submitted on November 10, 2022, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California.
