The Gleim Building, 265 W. Front St., Missoula, Montana, was a brothel constructed in 1893 for Mary Gleim, a notorious madam who owned at least eight "female boarding houses". This building serves as an example of a vernacular adaptation of Romanesque architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. History Brothels were present along West Front Street but the number expanded considerably after the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway and its construction crews in the 1880s. The building was built for Missoula's most prominent madam, Mary Gleim, in 1893 and reflects the impact railroads had on Missoula early in its history. Gleim ran her brothel empire from this building. Gleim stopped running the brothel in 1903 but retained the freehold. The building's use as a brothel ended in 1916 when the city bowed to public pressure and closed the red-light district. Subsequent owners operated an automobile repair shop and a billiard parlor from the premises for several decades. The building became an adult theater in the 1970s. By the 1980s the building had deteriorated considerably and was bought by architect James Hoffman who restored the building. The building has a plaque on the wall in tribute to Mary Gleim. Architecture The building was built of brick as a precaution against fire, following the fire that devastated the area in 1872. Built in the vernacular adaptation of Romanesque architecture first made popular by Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson in the 1870s, the building features brick corbelling, arched windows, checkerboard banding, and rusticated granite sills. The building's facade and its east and west sides have been restored to their original appearance. Gleim Building II Mary Gleim also had another of her buildings rebuilt in brick at 255-257 West Front Street, sometime between 1893 and 1902. The red brick building was restored in 1995 by David Paoli and listed on the National Register of Historic Places the same year. Mary Gleim Mary Gleim came to Missoula in 1888 with her husband, and quickly saw the potential for prostitution with the large number of railroad workers in the town. She set up brothels one after another in West Front Street and ruled them with a fist of iron, becoming the "Queen of Missoula's Bad Lands". Commonly known as "Mother Gleim", she was one of Missoula's characters and eventually owned a considerable number of properties in Missoula and elsewhere.