Ode To West Front by Deane Jones
Ode To West Front – by Deane Jones
When the Thunderbird Bar closed on West Front Street early this month, it was more than the closing of another bar. For the Thunderbird was the successor to the old Hawthorne Club, which, if it could talk, could have revealed more secrets from Missoula’s past, more West Front Street skeletons in the closet, than virtually any other Missoula building.
Long before prohibition came in 1919 the Hawthorne Club had been in the center of Missoula’s roistering, bustling, hustling red light district. Cribs stretched for blocks each way, clear to Higgins Avenue and west to Orange Street. Back in the 70s and 80s there were tales of bodies being bundled out the rear entrances of some of the places and into the Missoula River.
During prohibition, the district continued to flourish. When repeal came in 1933, the late Eddie Joiner operated the Hawthorne under the revived and revised liquor laws. The club was a favorite after-hours gathering place for people from all walks of life. When other bars closed at 2 a.m., the Hawthorne was just getting lively.
But not long after the end of prohibition, West Front Street had lost its title as the sin center of Missoula. Art Mosby, more recently acclaimed for moving the Greenough Mansion from Vine Street to his golf course on Farviews, almost single-handedly cleared out the district. When he moved KGVO Radio headquarters to 132 W. Front in the mid-1930s, the bawdy atmosphere of the street appalled him, and he went to work.
Others Cooperate
Enlisting the cooperation of some other businessmen, he belabored Missoula officialdom from every side, and within months there wasn’t a brothel left on West Front. They moved up to Woody Street, and within a few years were gone from there, scattered about the city. Then they gradually disappeared.
But the removal of the gals from West Front didn’t end the Hawthorne Club’s heydays. It continued to flourish under Eddie Joiner’s guidance until his death several years ago. Then it began to decline, still known as the Hawthorne, until a major remodeling job was conducted, its name was changed, and the old days faded away.
When the 4th Infantry was stationed at Ft. Missoula, both prior to World War I and afterward, the ‘F’ streetcar from the fort unloaded scores of soldiers each night at the Front-Higgins intersection. Some of the brawls down the street became legendary.
Civilian Caper
There was the night that three young fellows, civilians, proceeded down West Front, systematically smashing windows in the cribs. Then they took off toward Main Street, and a short time later joined the police in looking for the culprits. Many a soldier was routed out that night as the police went through the buildings. If the troops could have found the miscreants that caused the ruckus, there would have been bloodshed. But they never did.
West Front has long since become a respectable, almost staid, business street. But there must be some nostalgia for the “good old days,” so from time to time we’ll go into other episodes that helped make the street what it was.
The above Keeping Up With Jones column appeared in The Missoulian on May 23, 1967.