The Northern Hotel in Billings, Montana was built on its present site in 1902. It formally opened
in 1904 with three stories and sixty-nine rooms. On the corner of Broadway and First Avenue
North of the main building was the Bennett Drug Store.The Northern Hotel in Billings,
Montana was built on its present site in 1902. It formally opened in 1904 with
three stories and sixty-nine rooms. On the corner of Broadway and First Avenue
North of the main building was the Bennett Drug Store.

On September 12, 1940, a fi re brought the entire building to the ground in ashes.

The Bennett Drug Store found a new location at the corner of Second Avenue North and North
29th Street. I interviewed a Bennett family member who told of their hiring J. K. Ralston in approximately
1945 to do a one hundred sixty-fi ve-foot mural for the store.

The store location downtown was closed in the early 1960’s. J. K. Ralston came in and made the mural into
smaller sizes. The artist framed and signed each individual canvas.

 

Other examples of the Bennett Drug Store mural documented to date.