Historic Buttreys coffee shop celebrated during Festival Days

Pat Tilleman, Gloria Tilleman and Georgia Leland discuss how to decorate the 4-wheeler pulling the Bullhook Blossoms Garden Club Festival Days float.

People can celebrate a bit of restaurant history during the 32nd annual Festival Days celebration, which this year has the theme "Celebrating 100 years of Hill County. "

The Atrium Mall merchants are holding an open house and reception Saturday from 1 to 2 p. m. for Delores Mollberg, who owned and operated the Buttreys Coffee Shop in Buttreys Department Store in the 1950s and 1960s.

Faye James, events coordinator for the Atrium, said Delores and her husband, George, operated the coffee shop for 17 years.

"George was the cook and Delores baked the pies, " James said. "People in Havre remember the noisy, clanky and very busy, best restaurant in town.

"Delores made the best pie and people came from all over the Hi-Line and Montana to eat a piece of her pie, " James said, adding that she made hundreds of pies each week.

The coffee shop ties in with the 100th anniversary theme — the Buttreys Department store opened in Havre in 1902, 10 years before Chouteau County was split to create Hill and Blaine counties.

After the department store closed, part of the end of an era where the Havre-formed company grew to 53 stores in seven states, a group of Havre businessmen purchased the building in 1977 and opened the Atrium Mall.

Delores was operating the coffee shop with her husband during the heyday of the department store, although after the death of founder Frank A. Buttrey in 1949.

Delores, who grew up on a family farm and graduated from Dutton High School, moved to West Glacier with George in 1972. She has three sons, three grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

James said Delores still misses Havre and its people.

"She says she cries every time she comes to the prairie and one of her favorite things is to see the horses, " James added.