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**Wilma Theatre** - National Register of Historic Places Ref # 79001407, date listed 19791231
104 S. Higgins Ave.
Missoula,MT (Missoula County)
Constructed in 1921 as the HANSON SIMONS BUILDING is of fireproof construction throughout. Built in the spirit of the Alder and Sullivan auditorium in Chicago the building is eight stories tall with a mezzanine and full basement below. The original design included the theatre, and enclosed swimming pool and gymnasium, restaurant, barber shop, two stores, fifty offices and twelve apartments.
Proclaimed tpr be the finest and most beautiful theatre, between the twin cities and the west coast, Wilma Theatre opened May 11, 1921 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and has continued this excellence by playing to numerous New York stage, and Metropolitan Opera shows and such notables as Will Rogers, John Phillip Sousa, Ethel Barrymore, Marian Anderson, Carlos Montoya, Mahalia Jackson, Jan Peerce, Ferrante and teicher and countless others.
The Wilma was built by William A. "Billy" Simons, an early western entrepreneur who once produced a wild west show, featuring hundreds of cowboys, indians, etc, built several theatres during the Alaskan gold rush days as well as theatres in Oregon and Idaho. He has employed such notables as A.G. Barnes, an early circus promoter and Alexander Pantages, founder of the famous Pantages vaudeville circuit. In Missoula, Simons built the first electric light plant, the original Missoula Drug Company, and with Major Smead, the town's most ambitious business block, the Smead-Simons building which contains the Wilma Theatre. (1)
References (1) NRHP Nomination Form npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/79001407.pdf
Postmarked May 17, 1920, at Oakland, Cal.; addressed to Miss Lillian Klem, 71 Paige St., Tioga Co., O-WE-GO [Owego], New York.
Hotel St. Mark
Absolutely Fireproof
[vignette of hotel]
Oakland, California
Under Management of
LOUIS ABER
and E. J. GREENHOOD
12th at Franklin
All Cars Pass the Door
May 16 – 1920
Dear Lillian —
Of course, you have neglected my personal interests by not writing. Nevertheless I am writing you just the same to tell you the “scandal.”
Just completed five shows and I am all in. Not alone the shows but a party last night.
Duffy Rutherford and family invited several of the theatrical notables over to their house after the show. Our second party there in a week. Those present were: Jimmy [Casson, his stage partner flic.kr/p/UFpHBd], Hazel [Kirke, also part of their performance flic.kr/p/S9A1Gh] and self [https://flic.kr/p/Cw73iL], Florenz Tempest (formerly Tempest and Sunshine) [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Tempest], now headlining the Orpheum Circuit, Paisley Noon ([Ernestine] Meyers [fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernestine_Myers] and Noon), Frank DeVoe, Frances Wilson [vaudeville.library.arizona.edu/items/francis-wilson/] and several others.
Italian wine mixed with “Grappo” or Jack-ass liquor as they call it helped to lay a few of them away.
Miss Tempest fell and cut her head and lips and kept a few of the men busy holding her. She was like mad.
Hazel and I had a scrap in the car and my temper got the best of me and I almost broke her wrist. Now we don’t speak. She’s a tough customer and needs a good bat in the eye. Details in full, when I get home. [Goddammit, Fritz! Not cool. -Ed.]
I went to bed at 3 and got up at 9 and took boat over to here. Like going from N. Y. to Hoboken.
Another party came off last Wed. over here at Nicoletti’s house. Red Wine and girls from Orpheum.
One girl named Elizabeth and I had a few private spooning matches in the bed-room. A swell girl and great looking. She’s in “Los [Angeles, presumably]” this week. She’s with the “Song Shop” act on Orpheum.
Called on a girl in the “Passing Show” who has the “T. B.” (consumption) and brought her a lot of fruit. Met her in Detroit with her sister, who is real swell looking. Two Southern girls from Alabam.
Al Jolson is stopping at the Oakland to patch up his divorce case with his wife.
Mrs. Rutherford used to be with [William] Selig [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Selig] pictures at “Los.”
Great country out here! I’m wild about it!
To cap the climax — I’m in love with a most wonderful actress on the show ahead of us. Miss Violet Lorraine is her name [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Loraine].
She was here to-day and I took her out to breakfast with me. She is stuck on me and a romance is promised. Oh how she can love! Those Owego “janes” will all seem tame to me, when I get back home.
This trip has been wonderful and I have proffited by it. Incorrect spelling — but you know what I mean. I have lots to tell when I get home and hope I get the floor ahead of Tillie — for she is long-winded as the dickens.
This week promises to be free of parties at Nicoletti’s house. Red wine & liquor is scarce and hard to get.
Hear Art and Lyd are going to-gether. Tell him to remember his failings.
Don’t get to [sic] far gone on Cole — Wait and get out in the world a bit and see a few things.
Next week I will be meeting the film stars in Los Angeles.
Have been very successful and my popularity with the performers and natives of different towns, has greatly lifted my chances in show business.
My own original “Shimmie Dance” panicked the bunch out at the party the other night and Jim says it goes in act next season.
Will send you one of my new photos when they come next week.
Will write more later. Don’t disclose all the facts in this letter to the folks, as my escapades might cause them worry.
Love and kisses to you all, I remain
Your loving brother
[signed] Fritz
The sapper stands at the left, his head completely enclosed in the asbestos suit and his right arm bent at the elbow. He appears to be firing the lance of a static flamethrower, possibly the Tovarnitskiy trench flamethrower.
Operated by a nine-man squad, the Tovarnitskiy used a lance that was mounted on a pintle in the ground and swiveled from side to side.
Former fireproof flax mill (empty at time of inspection, August 1989). 1809 (dated rainwater heads and documentary evidence). Coursed limestone; renewed concrete pantiled gable-end roofs. Long range with centrally-placed engine house, possibly the first mill building to have its engine house so positioned and marking an important stage in the development of the textile mill. 4 storeys. 7 window bays to either side of slightly projecting pedimented central wing (which contains the engine house), including 2 loading bays asymmetrically placed. All windows under segmental arches with keystones; renewed casements with glazing bars. Some ground-floor window openings altered. Central doorway (double doors with recessed panels), the pedimented wing with one central window to each floor. Moulded stone cornice. End walls with stone coping and external stack; left-hand return rendered with 3 windows, the openings narrowed in brick; right return with 2 windows to each floor treated as to front, those to the left lengthened to form loading bays. 4th floor window set within stack. Blocked circular privy windows, 2 to each floor. Rear, the engine house projecting one window bay with tall tapering external stack, renewed top course of shaft in brick. Windows as to front, several altered. Interior: central rank of paired iron columns. Quatrefoil in section, with lugs for line shafting. Cast-iron queen-strut roof. Transverse arches below windows to equalise load. This mill is of national importance. It appears to be the earliest mill to contain a central engine house which was more economical in driving long line shafts. It is also one of the half dozen or so earliest surviving fire-proofed mills. EH Listing
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Minton Tiles
The richly patterned and colored Minton tile floors are one of the most striking features of the extensions of the United States Capitol. They were first installed in 1856, when Thomas U. Walter was engaged in the design and construction of vast additions to the Capitol (1851-1865). For the floors in his extensions, Walter chose encaustic tile for its beauty, durability and sophistication.
•Artist: Minton, Hollins and Company
•Date: Installed in 1856
One striking example of the contrast between the interiors of the Old Capitol (finished in 1826) and the extensions (begun in 1851) may be seen in the differences in flooring materials. In the Old Capitol, stone pavers were used in corridors and other public spaces, such as the Rotunda and Crypt, while brick was used to floor committee rooms and offices. These materials, although durable and fireproof, would have looked plain and old-fashioned to the Victorian eye. In the mid-19th century, encaustic tile flooring was considered the most suitable and beautiful material for high-traffic areas. Unlike ordinary glazed tile, the pattern in encaustic tile is made of colored clays inlaid or imbedded in the clay ground. Because the color is part of the fabric of the encaustic tile, it will retain its beauty after years of wear. One observer noted:
“The indestructibility of tiles may be judged from the fact that the excavations at Pompeii have unearthed apartments where painted tiles are just as beautiful, the colors as fresh and bright as... when the fated city was in all its glory.”
Two types of tile were used at the U.S. Capitol: plain and inlaid encaustic tiles in a range of colors. Plain tiles were used as borders for the elaborate inlaid designs or to pave large corridor areas. They were available in seven colors: buff, red, black, drab, chocolate, light blue and white. Additional colors, such as cobalt blue, blue-gray, and light and dark green, appear in the inlaid encaustic tiles that form the elaborate centerpieces and architectural borders. They were made by “filling indentations in the unburnt tile with the desired colors and burning the whole together.”
The patterns and designs formed in the inlaid tiles were limited only by taste and imagination. They include geometric patterns such as the Greek key, guilloche, and basket weave; floral designs such as the fleur-de-lis; and figures such as dolphins and classical heads. Few of the patterns are repeated. Although most of the tiles are six-by-six-inch squares, some are round, triangular or pie-shaped. Approximately 1,000 different tile patterns are used in the corridors of the Capitol alone, and up to 100 different tiles may be needed to create a single design.
The original encaustic tiles in the Capitol extensions were manufactured at Stoke-upon-Trent in Staffordshire, England, by Minton, Hollins and Company. The firm’s patented tiles had won numerous gold medals at international exhibitions and were considered the best tiles made. In 1876, having seen Minton’s large display at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, one critic wrote, “Messr. Minton shone superior to all exhibits of the sort… and may be cited as showing the highest results in tile-pottery achieved by modern skill and research.”
Beginning in 1856, and continuing for five years, the tile was installed by the import firm of Miller and Coates of New York City. For the journey from New York to Washington, the tiles were packed in wooden casks weighing about 1100 pounds; each cask contained enough tiles to pave about 100 square feet. The cost of the tile ranged from $0.68 to $2.03 per square foot.
Thomas U. Walter had every reason to believe that the encaustic tile floors would last as long as his extensions stood. One visitor noted in 1859 that the tile floors vied with the beauty of marble and surpassed it in durability. While perhaps valid for other installations, however, this prediction proved overly optimistic for the Capitol Building. By 1924, the Minton tile was removed from the corridors in the first and second floors of the House Wing and replaced by “marble tile in patterns of a simple order.” In that day, marble was selected for its superior durability and because suitable replacement tile was difficult to find.
In the 1970s, however, a similar condition prompted a very different response. In 1972, a search was undertaken to determine a source of similar tiles in order to restore the original appearance of the building. Inquiries were made of all major American tile manufacturers, the American Ceramic Tile Manufacturers Association, and even Mexican and Spanish tile suppliers. Although the colors and designs could be reproduced relatively easily, the patterns would quickly wear because they would be applied to the surface. The “inlaid” feature of the encaustic tiles, i.e., the approximately 1/8-inch thickness of the pattern and color, is the characteristic that enables the Minton tiles to be walked upon for over 100 years without signs of wear. It was this technique that formed the basic difficulty of manufacture.
Finally, as a result of the Capitol’s needs becoming generally known, the Architect of the Capitol was placed in contact with H & R Johnson Tiles Ltd., located at Stoke-on-Trent, England. It was discovered that that firm was a successor company to the Minton Tile Co. and had even retained many of the original hand tools and forms in a private museum at the company’s manufacturing site.
Contact was then made with Mr. James Ellis, the Directing Architect of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings for the Crown. He had been trying for many years to establish a program for the replacement of the worn Minton tiles at the Houses of Parliament but had more or less given up the attempt because of H & R Johnson’s continued unwillingness to revive the encaustic tile process. However, the restoration work at the Arts and Industries Building of the Smithsonian Institution was in process at about the time the needs of the Capitol became known; it thus appeared that a market for such tiles was developing to the degree that the manufacturer began to reconsider its prior position. The company thus began the experiments that finally led to the present availability, after many decades, of the original Minton-type tiles.
Because the tiles in the Capitol are more decorative and have more complicated designs and color combinations than those in either the Houses of Parliament or the Smithsonian, those institutions were able to obtain replacement tiles sooner than the Capitol. The lessons learned in the manufacture of the simpler tiles served as a basis for filling the later needs.
Color photographs and full-sized drawings of the many required patterns were made and recorded, and many developmental submissions were made as the hand-made manufacturing process was re-developed. Finally, in 1986, the first acceptable tiles were delivered. The installation process was accomplished with modern cement adhesives and has yielded excellent results.
The program enabled the original tiles to be replaced with exact replicas. This project began on the first floor of the Senate wing, where the effects of 130 years of wear and tear were most noticeable. Replacement tile was closely scrutinized to ensure fidelity to the nineteenth-century originals. While difficult and slow, this process is the only fitting response to the history of the Capitol extensions, not only to restore the original beauty and elegance of these unique floors, but also to provide for their continuing attractiveness for the foreseeable future.
At the turn of the 20th century, industrial manufacturing was expanding dramatically while factory buildings remained fire-prone relics of an earlier age. That is, until a 28-year-old civil engineer finally achieved what engineers around the world had unsuccessfully attempted. Working in his brother’s basement in Detroit, Julius Kahn invented the first practical and scientific method of reinforcing concrete with steel bars, which finally made it possible to construct strong, fireproof buildings. After Kahn founded a company in 1903 to manufacture and sell his reinforcement bars, his system of construction became the most widely used throughout the world.
Available at a discount when ordered from the University of Michigan Press website with the discount code UMF24: press.umich.edu/Books/C/Concrete-Century
You are invited to join the book launch at Detroit's Fisher Building on October 5. Details here: albertkahnlegacy.org/events/save-the-date-concrete-centur...
Italian flamethrower sapper at the training ground in Risano. He is armed with an Italian Schilt No. 3 bis, built under license by the Bergomi Society of Milan. Unusually, the lance is upside down. Note the white smoke emitted by the fuse in the nozzle.
From 1916 to early 1918, the nine flamethrower companies were armed with either static flamethrowers, medium semi-portable flamethrowers, or portable flamethrowers.
Beginning in May of 1917 portable flamethrower sections were formed, to be attached to each regiment of infantry, Bersaglieri, and grenadiers, as well as each battalion of Alpini and each assault unit.
By the end of the war there was a total of 361 portable-flamethrower sections; nine flamethrower companies armed only with static weapons; and four independent flamethrower sections armed with static weapons.
This sapper wears a fireproof suit based on the British and Russian models.
A distinctive address. 5 blocks from leading department stores and restaurants. Fireproof. Soundproof. 24 hour switchboard.
Another great fireproof warehouse/storage building seen on this walk on all of Madison Street in Chicago
Small cameras are encased in fireproof housings give the team a closer look at how fire shelters react to high intensity flames. These cameras placed in and around the fire shelters serve as another source of data collection. (USDA Forest Service photo by Andrew Avitt)
The fireproof drunk man came to help us out. He got a grill from his barbecue, and we got a metal pole to support it. It cooked the rice pretty well, but it was a nightmare to get the pan out.
Pyrobar was a fireproof gypsum (calcium sulfate) material manufactured by the U.S. Gypsum Company and used in construction in the early 20th century. From www.workshopoftheworld.com/southwest_phila/us_gypsum.html: "Gypsum is such a versatile substance because it can be ground into powder , molded into the desired shape, and be returned to its original rock-like hardness simply by adding water. The gypsum is first calcined to drive off water molecules that are part of the compound, forming plaster. This plaster is mixed with water and additives to form slurry. This slurry is sandwiched between sheets of heavy paper to form the gypsum board, which is then cut to the proper shape, dried in a heater and prepared for shipping."
Washburne Trade School, Chicago
Ward worked in collaboration with architect Robert Mook over three years to build the house. His goal was not only to build a house for himself, but that it be effectively fireproof. It was made entirely of Portland cement and light iron I-beams and rods, even in the roof. Wood was only used for door and window frames and their decorative trim. Ward's mother also had a fear of fire, which contributed to his desire to construct a fireproof residence.
Mook contributed a design in keeping with the tastes of the time. The main block and its mansard roof are in high Second Empire architectural style, and the more Gothic tower allows for panoramic views over Long Island Sound. The other tower is a water tower, meant to offer additional fire protection as well as a drinking supply. The architect and engineer left the concrete unfinished to better display it.
Architectural publications carried articles about the house as early as year before construction was finished. Its completion in 1876 prompted even longer articles, and mentions in overseas publications. Seven years later, in 1883, Ward presented his own paper on the house's construction to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Sometimes called the first known reinforced concrete building in the United States (although the Coignet Building in Brooklyn, New York was completed over the winter of 1872-73) critics and scholars have recognized its importance since then, calling it "one of the most remarkable achievements of building art in the century" and "a technical tour de force". Ward's neighbors were less sure, calling it "Ward's Folly" at first, certain it would collapse or otherwise be ruined, but later calling it "Ward's Castle" when it survived. It has remained mostly unaltered, save for the two modern wings, ever since.
From 1976 until 1992 the unaltered castle housed the Museum of Cartoon Art established by Mort Walker two years earlier. Walker bought the dilapidated building for $60,000. He repaired the house and ran the museum with his family. It attracted up to 75,000 visitors per year.
The Ward House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The following year, the structure was jointly designated as a National Historic Civil and Concrete Engineering Landmark by the American Concrete Institute and the American Society of Civil Engineers.