Wassweiler Mercantile
The Wassweiler started as a Hotel and Hot Springs
Montana has a number of hot springs that gained popularity for recreational and therapeutic use during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Wassweiler building was constructed in 1883 and had been converted through the last century from a seven-room inn to a single-family dwelling.
Listed on the National Historic Register, the crisply finished brick house was once the pride and joy of German immigrant and gold prospector Ferdinand Wassweiler. The entrepreneur had purchased the property in 1863 and advertised the inn and bathhouse as the Wassweiler Hot Springs Hotel in 1883, offering rooms and baths drawn from two hot springs. He and his wife Caroline ultimately sold the water rights to railroad magnate Colonel Charles Broadwater, who opened the Broadwater Hotel and Natatorium, which failed famously and was demolished in the 1970s.
According to historian Ellen Baumler, legend has it that after selling the water rights to Broadwater, the Wassweilers converted the bathhouse to “cribs” and imported women to entertain miners. The Wassweilers’ hotel and bathhouse, in its second life, operated until 1904. Since then, it has been a wool-dyeing business, a turkey farm, and an antique store.
Now thanks to Marci Andersen, The Wassweiler is in a new phase of life. Come take in all the history as you shop local treasures at the Wassweiler Mercantile.
PHONE: 406 439-7688
ADDRESS: 4528 W, US-12, Helena, MT 59601
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 2pm – Close
