A Tour Through the Lavina Adams Hotel

Many may have passed the flyer for the Adams Hotel open house for the first weekend of September. I have long been fascinated with the hotel and was very excited to tour the inside. Traveling out on a warm, sunny, Sunday, we attended this open house. Outside, cars filled the parking lot. The smell of barbeque on the side of the tattered hotel was drawing people to eat. The hotel porch was bustling with people laughing and visiting as though it had been open for years. One could almost imagine the days of business having grand parties.

Through the stained glass windowed front doors, there were many more people inside. The place was buzzing. The first impression walking through the door was a sense of astonishment and surprise at the grandeur of what seems to be a decaying building. The innumerable treasures viewed at first glance as you saw each room. Hanging artwork was large and grand, many as tall as me, but did not outshine the grandeur of the chandeliers in each room and nearly every hall.

The dining room was serving wine, cookies, and other various snacks. It felt like a moment back in time, when there was no television, and one went to festivities to visit their neighbors and friends while having a moment of class and culture. Parties of elegance are lost in time to most of us, in our modern-day. Walking through the rooms caused me to feel that I needed a ball dress and perhaps a walking umbrella and along with a hat with feathers. The Victorian theme carried through the hotel.

One of the most charming aspects of the Adams Hotel is the blend of restoration with the tattered ceilings and broken floorboards. The Adams Hotel's furnishings have been collected from around the world.

The Adams Hotel was constructed in 1908, by Ludwig Carl Lehfeldt (Louie). Naturally, it was the center of social life in the community. The railroad brought travelers, supplies, and homesteaders to the area, it was the boom and beginning to many a small town in Montana. The hotel catered to the railroad passengers. The hotel originally had 22 rooms, actually only 21 because of the age-old superstition around the number 13. Things peaked for the hotel from 1908 -1920. Hardships fell upon the homesteaders, and people began leaving Lavina. The hotel struggled another two years before closing in 1922. The hotel remained closed through the Great Depression and was sold in 1930 for back taxes to the American Lutheran Church for $750.00. The original bar was sold and is currently in a bar in Virginia City, Montana. In 2000 after two more owners, Raymond Barry purchased the building and began restoring it till his death in 2015. He willed the Adams Hotel to the descendants of Louie. Louie's granddaughter, Catherine Lehfeld Thayer, is now continuing restoration and furthering the hope of keeping the Adams Hotel for the future as a glimpse the past.

As many of us from Montana have seen, many homesteads and towns have faded, crumbled, till they are torn down. They are only stories and memories, and it is a joy to see preservation such as this. If you are interested in this cause, tax-exempt donations are welcome. "Friends of the Historic Adams Hotel," One Main Street. Box 187, Lavina, Montana, 59046.