Casey's Bar under new ownership

The oldest building in Whitefish has a

new owner. Local builder Eric Payne says Casey’s Bar is the first

bar he’s owned, and he wants to keep the name and the style of the

building intact.

The two-story wood building opened for

business as the Sprague Saloon in 1905, and the site has been home

to saloons or billiard halls under different owners ever since. Pat

Casey took over ownership in 1967 and renamed it Casey’s.

Richard Kramer, who sold Casey’s and

the Red Caboose cafe next door last year, had both properties

listed for $1.775 million before the properties were separated. He

said Casey’s Bar, which sits on “old-growth timbers” and leans

about 18 inches to the south, was not officially designated

historical and theoretically could be torn down.

Sean Averill and several other

investors bought Casey’s Bar from Kramer but sold it shortly

afterwards. Payne told the Pilot he took ownership of the building

and business on Jan. 4. He’s been a member of the city’s

Architectural Review Committee for about six months and is the

owner of Frontier Builders of Whitefish.

In the short term, Payne said, he plans

to improve the functionality of the inside, provide more security

and safety, and address some minor aesthetics.

In the long term, however, the building

could see a major renovation — even if that means tearing it down.

The structural components are in “horrible condition” and mostly

not salvageable, Payne said.

The new building could be two stories

high with a rustic Old West exterior combined with some newer

finishes.

“I want to build a great cornerstone

project, something the city can be proud of,” he said. “I’d want it

to be a little different than anything else downtown.

Two things Payne wants to salvage are

the neon cloverleaf sign hanging over the front and the “poker

nitely” sign on the building’s north side. Neon signs, however, are

not allowed under the city’s sign ordinance, and putting it back up

on a new building could require a variance.

Casey’s sign ordinance problem surfaced

during the Whitefish City Council’s Feb. 22 meeting when councilor

Turner Askew noted that while the neon sign was “funky,” it was

also “part of Whitefish.”

City planning director David Taylor

said the sign might qualify for a variance as an historic sign, at

which point councilor Chris Hyatt noted that the cost of a sign

ordinance variance is $1,980.

Taylor told the Pilot he was sad to

hear Casey’s might be demolished. A chapter on historic

preservation in the city growth policy mentions that Casey’s was

vulnerable to demolition, he noted.