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Among Other Things: Papke Apartments and other memories

by Paul Fugleberg
| January 24, 2007 12:00 AM

This seems to be an opportune time to tell a bit about one of Polson’s older landmarks that is no longer here — the former Papke Apartments on 12th Ave. West. Recently the building was razed by owner Bill Ingram of Tradewinds Real Estate, who said that development plans are still pending.

With the help of Kyle Karstens at Lake County Abstract and Title Company, I learned the original property on which the building was located was purchased by Harry Ellis from the Polson Townsite Company, a development firm, in August 1915. Ellis sold to Charles Lyman in July 1917. He held the lot until 1930 when Security State Bank obtained the deed.

Despite the magnificent view of Flathead Lake, the property remained undeveloped until J.H. Papke bought the property from the bank in 1937 and apparently started construction soon thereafter.

Papke sold to William G. Stoner in 1972 and he sold to Bill Ingram and John Wickes in October 1977.

Ingram said the property was composed of 29,600 square feet and an approximate 4,000 sq. ft. structure, not including a partial basement. He said, “Outdated technology played a major role in our decision to destroy the building.”

Among other things the building’s wiring and heating system were outdated, and there were foundation and footing weaknesses and dangerous accesses on the south side, Ingram said.

While Ingram and Wickes referred to the building as the “Stoner Apartments” after buying the property, longtime residents found tradition was hard to break, and they continued to call the structure the Papke Apartments.

And now it’s just another memory.

1950-51 Pirate cagers

Came across some notes the other day that I was going to use upon completion of the remodeling of the Linderman gym last year. Original gym construction was completed and its dedication was marked by an invitational basketball tourney in December. The host Polson team was not treated very well. Charlo beat the Pirates 32-30.

Charlo players included Jim Steindorf, Monty Balfour, Jim Anderson, Wayne Anderson, Dick Kerr, Dick Stipe and Jack Howell,

Polson’s 1950-51 players included Keith Burrowes, Daryl Dupuis, Wendell Harrington, Harold Utsond, Jim Duford, Everett Christensen, Ray Anderson, Ted Winger, Lionel Herreid, Kenneth McAllister and Don Claffey.

Independent team

In those years Polson had a men’s team, the Polson Lakers, that competed successfully in the North West Montana League and in 1951 was the defending champion with a 29-3 win-loss record.

Unfortunately, not a lot of emphasis was placed on sports coverage in weekly newspapers then and reports of independent games were infrequent. Even the high school games didn’t rate much ink either.

How times have changed.

Sharon Bergman

Among many folks, we were saddened to learn of Sharon Bergman’s death.

In recent years Sharon Bergman was the Leader’s correspondent for the Polson Senior Center’s news items.

However, the first time I had the pleasure of working with Sharon was in 1960 when she provided the copy for the local history book, “The Fabulous Flathead,” by J.F. McAlear as told to Sharon Bergman. The manuscript was crisp, clean and legible, and easy to set into type. Our Treasure State Publishing Co. did the typesetting for the book and forwarded it to Ashton Printers in Butte for printing. We didn’t have offset printing equipment yet in Polson.

Our condolences to Sharon’s family and friends.