As viewed in the illustration, this Mid-Century Modern restaurant & lounge has a mountain range looming just beyond their back door. In actuality, the Rocky Mountains loom farther down the road, but the closet peak, Mt. Helena, is highly visible from the restaurant's new patio.
Built in 1958 by Danish immigrant Fred Jorgenson and his grown children, the restaurant has been remodeled to even more modern standards- and amazingly- is still in business under the same name, operated by the 3rd and 4th generations of Jorgensons. The Holiday Inn that gets front cover billing is not the same as the chain of motels that claims to be "The World's Innkeeper". The motel was standing when the Jorgensons chose that location for their restaurant; later they purchased the 37 unit operation and expanded it to create 102 units.
Fred Jorgenson had already retired from a career in restaurant cooking that began when he arrived in Helena in 1912. After a brief one-year retirement, he joined with his children and their spouses to begin a successful catering operation in 1951, which they sold a few years later to settle into their own restaurant. After 3 decades, they sold both the motel and restaurant, but the new owners kept the family's name on the signage and convinced the Jorgenson offspring to return to the restaurant.
Located just 6 blocks from the Montana state capitol building, Jorgenson's Inn & Suites is at 1714 11th Avenue.
Matchbook date: early 1970's
interesting history!
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