Power Townsend

HISTORY OF POWER TOWNSEND:

Power Townsend Company started in Fort Benton, Montana Territory as T. C. Power and I. G. Baker formed mining and supply stores. The Fort Benton Transportation Company, the progenitor of the supply and mercantile stores had been formed by Power and Baker in 1867.. T. C. Power's first home in Montana Territory was at Fort Benton, head of navigation on the Missouri River. 1867 was the time that the Power Townsend Company came into being.
This history's focus will point to the founding of the T. C. Power and Brother proprietorship by Thomas Charles, John W., Charles Benton and John Merlin Power. T. C. Power and Brother was a Power family enterprise from the Fort Benton founding in 1867 until March 4, 1944 when Charles Benton Power sold the capital stock of 900 shares in the Power Townsend Company to Cornelius Michael Wall. C. M. Wall had "married" into the Power mercantile organization in 1923. After 1887, John W. Power, T. C.'s Brother, was headquartered in the Steamboat Block. In 1901, after John W's death, his son, John M. Power assumed the executive director's position in the Steamboat Block.
This building under John W. and John M. Power was the center of the operations of the chain of mercantile supply firms which extended throughout the Upper Missouri River Valley and up or down its tributaries in such places as Fort Benton, Fort Shaw, Lewistown, Carroll, Fort Peck and Fort Clagget. Power stores could be found also in the Madison and Gallatin River valleys. An example was the Belgrade Mercantile Company in Belgrade, Montana, just west of Bozeman, Montana southeast of Helena.
General supply firms were found in Fairfield-Simms, Cascade, Great Falls, Havre and up to and through the Canadian border with posts in Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Moose Jaw in Alberta and Saskatchewan. John W. Power had arranged the supply forts or towns to be near the local Native American or Native stock in Canada, with whom large exchange of goods took place. After nearly a century in the steamboat block changing from scattered stores across Montana to a couple it was time to move on.
Power Townsend left 618 Helena Avenue for 3085 North Montana Avenue. Power Townsend became a building materials super market center. This concept relies much more on the customer serving him/herself with staff acting as helpers and consultants. Sales happened when the customer needed the best, most efficient power tools and materials to complete the daily or weekend task, whether contract or personal. Customers settled accounts with the Power Townsend checkout cashiers, one of whom was Aunt Patricia Wall. This approach to sales was a big change from the traditional Power Townsend clerk waiting upon each customer and meeting that customer’s needs. Construction projects placed more emphasis upon the consultative approach with the use of suggestion, discussion, problem solving and direction toward the product(s) to be used, then offering the needed products at an appealing competitive price. The old-fashioned method of a clerk/salesperson handling each sale from one stove bolt to one 220 volt ¾ horsepower electric bench saw to 24 squares of composition roofing material receded to the clerk-cashier who finalized each deal with Power Townsend Company.
In response to the opening of the Home Depot store near the Helena airport off I -15 with its 80,000 square feet plus of display space and its emphasis on the promotion of building materials, Mike Wall, President of Power Townsend, decided to secure a $4,000,000 loan from the Mountain West Bank to expand the sales display space of Power Townsend Company in order to compete effectively with Home Depot. To some degree, this was a leap of faith by Mike and son Kevin Wall, but lack of expansion to meet the Home Depot threat would probably have resulted in a Power Townsend sales reduction on the order of forty to fifty percent. Therefore in the fall of 2002 Mike and Kevin contracted with the Dick Anderson Construction Company for the massive expansion in floor space for the Power Townsend Company.
In May of 2010 we finished a new remodel to include a design center with Flooring, Appliances, cabinets and a better computer system. Come in and see what Helena has built.