The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-09-23
GFrom Sundays Daily.]
A Magnificent Business House.

[From Sundays Daily.]
A Magnificent Business House..
Now that Bonner g. Co. are fairly installed
in their new quarters, a full description of
the new store may not be out of place.
Other salesrooms in Montana are larger than
the Butte salesroom OF B. & Co., some being
longer, others wider, but none of them is so.
well proportioned; non impresses the mind
Of the heholder with the idea of symmetrical
elegance suggested at the first sight of the
mammoth establishment on Upper Main
street. The room is neither too wide nor
narrow for its length; neither too high nor
low for its other dimensions. Its proportions
are intellectually correct, and from the first
glance to the last the impression made on the
eye Is like that produced by a finely chiseled
piece of sculpture, a beautiful painting or
other work in which the rules of art have
been closely followed, not flagrantly departed
from. The salesroom is 2ss feet wide inside,
1Oe feet long ana Is feet high. Its sides are
fanked by It's feet of corniced shelving, the
shelving being ten feet high, with a broad
cornice at the top, upon which stacks of un-
broken packages are piled. In the middle of
the room, facing the visitor upon entering, is
a broad, circular-headed counter, beginning
near the door and running down the full
length of the hall. This counter is hollow,
or has an open space in middle from which
the statesmen can display the goods to patrons
on either side. A circular headed counter is
also found on each side of the hall, beginning
a short distance from the show-window, and
running back full length. Those counters are
low and broad and are finished with base
~mouldings, panels, pilasters and projecting
cornices, their form, as well as their finish be-
ing exquisite. The finish is marble for the
base moulding, French and American maple
for the panels, and oak for the pilasters and
borders. The entire length of the counters,
81 inches wide, is 800 feet. At night a partic-
ularly fine display is made by the light OF the
thirty large shade lamps with which the es-
tablishlnent is illuminated. Six of these lamps
shed their rays from the central chandelier,
suspended from a frescoed decoration in the
ceiling. In the front we have a recess glass
door, eight feet wide by fourteen high, and
windows six feet by thirteen, besides the glass
sides of the half-bow window formed on ei-
Their hand by the recess of the door. The
size of the window glass is 3Ox5O inches,
double thickness, rather an announcement size,
since in case of breakage it can only be re-
placed by ordering from the East. Above the
windows are tastefully designed transoms
each consisting of segments of three circles
one larger one containing two smaller, touch.
ing each other on the vertical diameter of the
larger circle. Tho porch in front of the
building, which is 16 feet wide and Is high
serves to support the massive iron doors and
shutters ready to be dropped at an ~instant's
warning of danger. Taken altogether the
building is just what it should be properly to
corr espond with the business transacted by
the firm occupying it. Counting all these
different houses in Montana, the firm of f. L,
Bonner & Co. are among the heaviest, if no,
the heaviest, importers in the Territory, as the
books of the Terminus commission mer.
chants will show. The advantage of import.
ing Oh SO large a scale enables them to deal
direct with manufacturers, and get specia|
rates of transportation. This, added to the
further advantage Of having a shrewd buyer
constantly watching the markets, enables
Messis. E. L. B. & Co.. to sell goods here fol
less than a small buyer can import them and
still make a moderate profit, which is all they
ask.