Archives West Finding Aid

The Day family, with their various business interests, acquired a good deal of real estate, both commercial and residential. In order to manage these properties the Wallace Realty Company, Jerome Day, president, was incorporated in 1918. Its original capitalization was $110,000 divided into 2,200 shares, par value $50.00.

In 1934 the directors were Jerome Day, president, W.B. Heitfeld, Harry L. Day, F.M. Rothrock, and S.F. Heitfeld. After Jerome's death in 1941, Harry Day was elected president. But when he died a year later, in December 1942, Henry L. Day was elected to that office and remained president until the dissolution of the company in 1973.

Among the properties owned by the corporation in the 1940s were the Day Building in Wallace which housed the Morrow Retail Store on the first floor, and the offices of Day Mines, Inc., Henry L. Day, Lucy Mix Day Trust, and the Abot, Jupiter, Moonlight and Success Mining Companies on the second; the land on which the Silver Star Drive-In Theater was located, the building housing the Morrow store in Mullan, a garage adjoining the Wallace swimming pool, and tracts of land in several subdivisions. In 1948 the company purchased the Reding Building east of the Day Building on Cedar Street, and in 1953 the Castellan residence at 412 Cedar was purchased. In that year the company also began to sell parcels of its Osburn land, and by 1965 all lots in the Gray-Copper tract, plotted in 1956, were sold.

As various acquired properties were sold, the purposes for which the corporation was formed no longer existed. On June 19, 1972, the Day Building was sold to Day Mines, Inc., for DMI treasury stock, and on June 30, the directors, Henry L. Day, Henry D. Ellis, Leonard G. Gaffney, Norval K. Bue, and Dominic Peretti, met to plan for the complete liquidation of the corporation. All remaining property was to be sold and the assets, which consisted of 11,250 shares of Day Mines stock, 28 acres of land in Osburn, furniture and fixtures, and $1,600 rental from the Silver Star Drive-In Theater for the 1973 season, was to be divided among the 14 stockholders, all Day family members. Minutes for the final directors meeting, held May 16, 1973, showed the total liquidation distribution to be $214,692.63 or $102.82 per share.