The beauty of Butte

By Erin Nicholes, The Montana Standard - 12/09/2006

John Richen’s vision of turning the old, uninhabitable Park Hotel into a restaurant and bar has become a reality. Dodge Bros. Saloon & Eatery opened in November and is Butte’s newest dining establishment. Photo by Walter Hinick, The Montana Standard.

John Richen views Butte with an artist’s eye.

In crumbling buildings, he sees archi- tectural masterpieces. In scrap metal, he sees a sculptor’s medium. In boarded storefronts, he sees shops, restaurants and studios.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder — as artists know well — and Butte, Richen said, looks like paradise.

“During the summer, I sit out on my front porch and I just smile because I know this is the best place for me at this point in my life,” said Richen, 57, seated in the dining room of his Dodge Bros. Saloon & Eatery on West Park Street.

An architect by training, a sculptor by trade, Richen’s vision for an upscale restaurant in the once-crumbling Park Hotel took Butte by surprise when it opened in November.

“People looked at that building and said, ‘It’s ready for the wrecking ball,” said Karen Byrnes, county community development director. “He looked at that building and saw the burnt timbers and saw the collapsed floors and said, ‘I can do something with this.’” Those who know him said Richen’s ability to see beauty veiled in rubble and convention is a hallmark not only of the artist, but of the man.

“He can take … nothing, and turn it into something,” said Jack Krauss, owner of Whitt Krauss Gallery in San Diego, Calif., which shows Richen’s sculptures.

Hazelnuts and holly In the entryway of the Dodge Bros. restaurant, a shiny fan turns below a sculpted panel depicting a mining scene. Along with light fixtures and wine cellar doors, the fan is a sample of Richen’s handiwork.

“I love putting things together,” Richen said, underscoring sincerity with a humble shrug.

Richen’s appearance reflects a tendency toward manual labor. He’s most often seen in carpenter’s pants, long-sleeved work shirts and waffle-soled boots.

An Oregon native, he was raised on a Willamette Valley farm, where his parents grew hazelnuts and holly.

His dad was also an engineer whose résumé included designing the Bonneville Dam. His mom, who he said emphasized culture and creativity, ran the farm and raised three kids.

Motivated perhaps by a genetic drive to design and build, Richen studied architecture at Oregon State University, where he discovered sculpting accidentally.

“As I progressed and took classes, I did a lot of sculpture,” he said. “I wanted to build what I created.” At an art show his senior year, to his own surprise, he said, every piece sold.

“I spent the whole next summer sculpting on the farm,” he said.

He followed his sculpting career to Seattle and later California, eventually taking on large-scale commercial jobs, such as work for Princess Cruise Lines.

“He’s done many, many commissioned works worth a great deal,” Krauss said, adding there is currently a one-year minimum wait for Richen’s pieces. His art “has a contemporary look and a very finished feeling.” Sculpting family In a cozy corner at Richen’s restaurant, a dark-toned oil portrait of a woman adorns a wall adjacent a fireplace.

The painting is of Richen’s mom, and serves as a reminder of the value she placed on family, he said.

“It’s something I believe in,” he said.

And it’s a value he has lived.

In his 30s, Richen was a successful sculptor and the divorced father of two sons, Kevin and Paul, when he happened upon a booth in a mall providing information on foreign adoptions.

One thing led to another, and he later adopted two sons from Brazil, Luiz and Valdier.

“I was the first single father to foreign adopt in the state of Oregon, and that was a challenge,” he said. “I don’t regret it.” He eventually adopted three more boys from South America, Rodrigo, Rogierio and Thiago.

“You pass along your good fortune,” Richen said. “I felt like I was a good dad and I could handle more children.” Today, six of his sons are successful grown men. His seventh, Valdier, was killed in a car accident a few years ago.

Kevin lives in Butte and will soon open Richen Brewing Co.; Paul lives in Portland, Ore.; Rodrigo is a psychologist; Rogierio is married and a college student in Brazil, and Thiago is attending the New Mexico Military Institute.

Richen applies his family values even professionally, his employees said.

“He likes the working environment to be a family feeling place,” said Jeri Petritz, a Dodge Bros. manager.

A warm welcome Stumbling upon opportunities has been a theme for Richen; it’s how he discovered sculpture, adoption — and Butte.

On his way to Chicago to install a sculpture in 1994, he made a rest stop here.

“I just fell in love with Butte,” he said. “I came back time and time again.” And he continually invested, until he owned 18 Butte buildings, including the Park Hotel and its neighbor, the Berkshire, home to the Dodge Bros. Cafe.

“I was getting a little worn out from sculpting,” he said. “I thought, ‘If you’ve got that (building), you’ve got to have this one.” Along with opportunity and creative inspiration, he found another gem here, he said.

“You just couldn’t find a better group of people, more appreciative, more friendly, and the diversity of culture. Everybody who comes here, my friends, say the same thing.” He points to the response to the Dodge Bros. Cafe as an example of Butte’s warm welcome.

“We had 400 people the first weekend,” he said. “People would come by and say ‘thank you for opening.’ People would bring us memorabilia on Dodge Bros. That is so, so Butte.” And the public’s reaction to his restaurant has been inspiring, he said.

“You put art up on a wall or in a fountain, and you watch the way people respond,” he said. It pushes you to the next level. I already see ... how my work is changing.” Homesteading Through his eyes, Richen said, Butte just keeps getting better.

While he maintains a sculpting career that will keep him in the southern California city of Borrego, part of the year, Butte is home, he said.

Not just his home, but soon his family’s home. His mom died a few years ago, and his family had to sell the Oregon farm leaving it without a center of gravity.

“I have to step up to the plate and get us another homestead,” he said. “That will be Butte.” In the meantime, his artist’s eye is fixed on renovating the upper floors of the Park Hotel into a boutique-style inn, complete with rooftop dining.

“I’m going to build myself a suite in that hotel,” he said. “I’m a hotel kind of guy. Butte is probably my last stop.” Erin Nicholes may be reached at erin.nicholes@mtstandard.com.