Missoula’s Front Street looking west, January 2, 1930. The French Club was a Prohibition-era speakeasy operated by Frank “Frenchie” Therriault. The town’s red light district since the 1880s, Front Street was beginning to calm by this time, with police registers for the area recording fewer arrests for drunkenness, vagrancy, illicit drugs, and prostitution and more for parking and traffic violations. By this time many more respectable businesses occupy the block: the J. R. Daily meat company, a Hupmobile dealership, and the Star Garage. (81-342, Photo by R. H. McKay, Missoula County Court Records, K. Ross Toole Archives, The University of Montana—Missoula)

The three-story Hammond Arcade, in which the French Club was located, burned in 1932, transforming the southwest corner of Front Street and Higgins Avenue. Because of the Depression, it was rebuilt to only one story. Its overhanging awning meant that the photographer had to step into the street to get a reasonable view of this block. Daily’s is still in business in Missoula, and built a new plant on Mullan Road in 1967. Its Headquarters building and Daily Addition were restored in the mid-1990s. (Photo by Chris Autio, 2006)