John Shaughnessy’s Grand Central Hotel Dinner Bell
Dinner Bell Is Symbolic of Hotel Life in Early Days Here
Back in Missoula’s early days when the sound of a bell was heard from the lobby and the sidewalk outside the Grand Central Hotel, there was a rush to the dining room to smack lips over an ample meal which cost only 25 cents.
In those days dinner was at mid-day and promptly at noon, John Shaughnessy, who built and operated the Grand Central, appeared to ring the bell. The same thing was going on at the other hotels here and Missoula had a lot of them in those days. Otto Siegel rang the bell at the Montana Hotel and Miles Mix at the European.
The Florence didn’t have a dinner bell to signal the hungry to its upstairs dining room. Instead patrons kept a watch for the appearance of Birdie Estell, who ran the dining room for Harry Chaney.
The Rogers House at the corner of Stevens and Front Streets had the fanciest arrangement. Not only did it have a bell but a combined air-conditioning system and fly chaser – palm leaf fans placed over the tables and operated by foot power from the office where the clerk punched meal tickets while keeping the fans in motion. Frank Jones of the Elks Temple worked there for a time.
Favorite signal at lumber, mining, railroad and other camps for meals was a triangle and the larger the camp the larger the triangle. At Taft then a huge affair of railroad iron was used. Taft, which was an important point during the Milwaukee railroad construction, was four miles west of where Saltese is now. On week days a few taps were sufficient but on Sunday morning the men who took care of this important duty beat out a tattoo which might last a quarter-hour.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on June 14, 1953.
A photo of the Shaughnessy dinner bell appeared with the above article. Its caption read the following:
“This is the type of bell used to signal meal times before the turn of the century in Missoula hostelries. The inscription says ‘Dinner Bell Used in Grand Central Hotel, First in Missoula, Mont. Built by John Shaughnessy, 1887.’ It is bronze and about eight inches across the bottom. The bell is in the possession of a daughter of Shaughnessy, Mrs. D. Harold Peat of Napa, Calif., whose husband and his brother, Arthur, ran the Rankin House. Missoula had hotels long before 1887, according to Claude Elder. One of the earliest, is not the earliest, he said, was the Cottage which existed before 1870. It was located in the vicinity of the present Elks Temple. The Grand Central was about across the street from the present Northern Pacific Freight Depot and the Rankin House was about where the Standard Furniture Store now is.”
https://www.newspapers.com/image/349943841/
John A. Shaughnessy died in Missoula in Missoula in 1926. He and his wife were natives of Ontario, Canada. With his wife (Mary Reid Shaughnessy) he came to Missoula from Kansas in 1883. They were the parents of 5 sons and 2 daughters – Joe, Vincent, Edward, Anthony, John, Mrs. D. H. Peat and sister Vincent of Sacred Heart Academy. Their son, John was a member of the Siberian Expeditionary force and died in Archangel, North Russia, during the first WW. His body was returned for burial at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Missoula in a solemn ceremony in 1929. John was a contractor/builder and hotel owner. They owned a ranch west of Missoula that later became the home of the Missoula County Airport.