Eybel
/ Nash Hotel • 410 Fuller Avenue
1929 - 1979
Eybel
Hotel, 1934
Les Jorud Photo Courtesy of the Montana History Portal
MHS Lot 037 CB B12 F08 El.2
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Built
in 1929 by German-born Helena entrepreneur Charles Eybel (1870-1963),
this modest brick hotel -- actually more of a rooming house -- was a fixture on Fuller Avenue for
50 years. Eybel retired in 1941. In 1949, the hotel was purchased by Robert F. Nash (1908-1970), and became the Nash Hotel. It had other owners, including Mark and
Agnes Whetstone, and Neil C. Livingstone, Sr.
The
building was demolished in November of 1979 to make way for an addition to what was then the Montana Physician Service building (former Western Life Insurance Co.), 404 Fuller Ave. As of June 2020, the Helena Police Deprtment occupies that facility. |
Site
of the Eybel / Nash Hotel, 410 Fuller
Eybel
Hotel, 1939
COURTESY
OF AL BALLARD
Rear of the Eybel
Hotel
Seen from Park Ave., 1937
COURTESY
OF THE GRAND LODGE OF AF&AM OF MONTANA
| Traveling salesmen sometimes set up shop in their Eybel Hotel rooms. Among them was Kairo the psychic. Newspaper records show that Kairo traveled the west from about 1915 to 1935, plying his trade as a psychic, astrologer, and mentalist. He apparently ended up in San Bernardino, California. I have been unable to discover his real name. |
Owner's Son Dies in Blast, 1966
On January 2, 1966, Robert C. Nash (born 1947), the son of hotel owner Robert F. Nash, was killed in an accidental dynamite blast on the flanks of Mount Helena. Nash and his friend Frank Cuta were attempting to disarm the failed New Years Eve bomb they had constructed and placed on the hillside the night before. Nash cut through two wires on the device simultaneously, which completed the circuit and exploded some 85 sticks of dynamite. Nash was killed instantly, while Cuta suffered grave injuries. Read more about the accident on this site's Mount Helena page. |
Nash Hotel Demolished, November 1979
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Site
of the Eybel / Nash Hotel, 2011
