More Than a Foundation: The Many Lives of 119 West Main

Since long before it became home to Headwaters Foundation, the building at 119 West Main Street, was one of downtown Missoula’s busiest gathering places. Since it was built in 1891, the building has been home to more than 20 different businesses, including newspaper offices, butcher shops, barber shops, cafes, boarding houses, cocktail lounges, music venues, dance studios, and more.

Each chapter reflects a different era in Missoula’s history, but together they tell the story of a building that has continually adapted to serve its community. In 2020, Headwaters Foundation became the building’s current steward, adding another chapter to its long history. Through our nonprofit event space, Confluence Center, we’re proud to continue its tradition as a place where people come together.

Where it all began

When the building first opened in 1891, it was home to local newspapers, including the Missoula Publishing Company and Gazette. By the early 1900s, the Missoulian had also called the building home before moving elsewhere. Not long after, the presses gave way to butcher blocks. From 1909 through the 1920s, the building housed a series of meat markets, beginning with Koopman & Wissbrod, a wholesale and retail butcher shop run by Fritz Koopman and Arthur Wissbrod. Arthur’s father, Fred Wissbrod, later continued the tradition with Fred Wissbrod Meats.

A building full of neighbors

The building was once divided into several storefronts with an upstairs space, allowing as many as four businesses to operate here at once. In the late 1920s, visitors could stop by two barber shops, grab a meal at the Falstaff Cafe, or rent a room upstairs at Mattie Pickens’ boarding house.

Each business added its own character. Barber Franz B. Pott wasn’t just known for cutting hair and making wigs. He was also an avid fisherman credited with creating one of the first woven body hair trout flies, a pattern still used today. The Falstaff Cafe became a longtime Missoula favorite, serving daily dinners, Sunday steak and chicken specials, and even offering coupons to University of Montana students and athletes through the Kaimin. Upstairs, Mattie Pickens, later Mattie Fitzgibbons, operated an affordable boarding house for nearly a decade, providing simple rooms for people looking for a place to stay downtown.

Cocktails, conversation, and live music

By the mid-1930s, the upstairs boarding house had become a cocktail lounge, beginning nearly 70 years of bars and entertainment venues inside the building. The Uptown Club, Derby Liquors, and Murrill’s Cocktail Lounge all called the building home. Murrill’s advertised itself as offering “a congenial atmosphere only surpassed by excellent drinks and superb service,” proudly calling itself one of the Northwest’s finest cocktail lounges. Downstairs, businesses continued to evolve until one of the building’s most memorable chapters began.

A place Missoulians remember

Ask longtime Missoulians about 119 West Main, and you’ll likely hear a story about meeting friends at The Flame or seeing live music at Jay’s Upstairs. The Flame occupied the building from 1947 to 1980 and left an impression that still lingers today. People remember the red leather booths, creative cocktails, live music, and the famous aquarium behind the bar that housed a live eel. Even the menu reflected the feeling the owners hoped guests would take with them, signing off with the phrase, “Kindled in Your Memory.”

The building continued to be a gathering place through Corky’s Bar, Mary’s, and eventually Jay’s Bar, one of Missoula’s favorite spots for local and touring musicians before it closed in 2003. At our opening event in 2022, “elder punk rockers” gathered in our office to swap stories about Jay’s (we learned that The White Stripes played there!).

A new chapter

In the early 2000s, Jay and Stephanie LaFlesch purchased and spent three years restoring the historic building, helping preserve an important piece of downtown Missoula. This is why today, many people know it as the LaFlesch Building. The final businesses before Headwaters arrived included The Loft, a social club and event space, and the Downtown Dance Collective. In 2020, Headwaters Foundation purchased the building and thoughtfully renovated it (alongside MMW Architects and Scariano Construction!) into the office and community space it is today.

Over the past 130 years, the names on the door have changed many times, but the building has remained a place that serves the community. Today, through Confluence Center and our work alongside Western Montana nonprofits, we’re proud to carry that tradition forward.

If you’d like to explore the building’s history in more detail, browse this timeline of the businesses that occupied the space, along with a gallery of historic photos, newspaper advertisements, menus, and memorabilia from its many chapters.

This story was made possible thanks to the research of Amelia Adkins, who documented the history of the building. Her careful work uncovered the people, businesses, and stories that have shaped this building for more than a century, and we’re grateful she helped preserve this piece of Missoula’s history.