Talk had already begun by April of 1935 of moving the operations of the state liquor warehouse to a bigger facility. At the time, it was housed in the former Lindsay Fruit Co. building on Bozeman St. in the Sixth Ward. Under consideration for a new warehouse was the repurposing of the largely disused Nabisco factory at 1308 Boulder Avenue.

Plans for the construction of a new, proper warehouse were announced in the summer of 1935. The site chosen was on the north end of the Great Northern rail yard. Construction began in early October.

The devastating earthquakes of late October and early November demolished the Bozeman St. facility. Until the new warehouse could be completed, the Liquor Control Board operated out of the Empson Building on Placer Avenue in downtown Helena.

To facilitate the construction and operation of the new warehouse, Front Street was extended north. A property dispute arose between George G. E. Neill (1884-1964) and the City. Neill claimed ownership of the property, and erected wooden barricades across Front and 13th Streets, requiring traffic to go through the Great Northern railyard to get to the new warehouse. The dispute went on for a good two years.

At one point in the lengthy proceedings, Neill claimed that the gravel on the property was rich with gold, and demanded $25,000 to resolve the issue and remove the barricades. Mining experts testified that the gravel had been worked and worked again, and that not enough gold remained to justify the expense of extracting it.

The matter was finally settled in August of 1939 for $570.85, and the barricades were taken down..