1316 Bozeman Avenue · Helena, Montana
A cabinetmaker. A stone warehouse that served this town, then stored its moves for seventy-six years. About $28,000 of his own already on the stone — and a City match so the openings can be windows again.
The wall
Walk the stone and you can still see the arches. Some were filled. Wells have rusted. Mortar has taken weather. Barn doors have worked harder than most buildings stand.
This is not a museum piece behind glass. It is a working shell on Bozeman Avenue — Northern Pacific Addition, Railroad Urban Renewal District — a working shell on the railroad side of town.
On the map
From Diane’s Kleinschmidt history file: this warehouse was part of Kleinschmidt and Brothers — groceries and hardware about 1879 to 1896 — the family business of Theodore H. Kleinschmidt. Hardware and grocery first; then the holding place for Helena's groceries (Union Mercantile). Her file includes 1880 and 1884 maps. Nash-Finch came much later, and only for a handful of years in a 140-year life. No Jesse James. No secret lodge in this building — Helena had Knights of Pythias and Masons, and two pictures Diane sent are of the original Masonic building, not this warehouse.
In October 1935 the earthquakes took the State Liquor Warehouse on this street. The State still owns that liquor-store parcel next door. This stone building kept standing.
1949 — July 1, 2026
For seventy-six years this address was a Helena institution: residential and commercial moving, warehousing, shipping, storage — three generations of the Horne family. Diane’s Capital Transfer file (KTVH / Prism): started 1949 by John Horne’s grandfather and father; Horne full-time 1971, his brother 1974, his son also worked; eight people at the close. Thank-you cards on the office walls. The kind of business a town only notices when it is gone.
“Well the closing part is the hard part, I spent years and years, it’s all I’ve ever done.”
— John Horne, operations manager, speaking to KTVH as the warehouse emptied
He closed the doors July 1, 2026. The stone stayed. The next chapter walked in with tools.
The craftsman
Stephen Banker founded the shop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in May of 1992 and brought it to Montana in 1998. Thirty years of kitchens, furniture, millwork, restoration — made and installed in Helena.
His own words for the work: reproducing a piece “to fit the history and architecture of a space,” or designing something new. Quality materials. Excellent craftsmanship. Thoughtful design. Honest pricing.
He is leasing 1316 Bozeman — new lessee, intended future owner — to put a living shop inside a working warehouse. About $28,000 of his own is already in the stone and the office clapboard. Montana requires a licensed mason for the pointing. That is the law, not a slight. His craft is why he cares. The mason is who the stone requires.
The work
Not a gut-and-flip. The exterior — the face the railroad district sees.
Helena’s part
The building sits in the Railroad Urban Renewal District. The City can match up to half the cost of eligible exterior restoration — the same kind of tool that has already helped historic façades and window packages elsewhere in Helena.
Stephen puts private money and craft into the shop. The ask is for the openings, the stone, the wells, the ramp — the public face of a block that still has work left in it.
Same stone. Same address. A craftsman’s hands. A family’s seventy-six years honored by not letting the warehouse go dark for good.