John Duthie, a civil engineer and recent graduate of the School of Mines, and his wife of two years, Pearl Kennedy Duthie, moved into this newly constructed home in 1907. The house featured many Craftsman style elements: a low-pitched roof with large overhanging eaves, exposed rafter tails, a ribbon of multi-paned windows, and natural wooden shingles. The prominent hexagonal front bay and mixture of wall textures are more commonly found in Queen Anne style homes. By 1910, the couple had moved to Libby, and English immigrants Wilford and Miriam Holman had purchased the residence, where Miriam raised three children. William worked as a machinist but was better known as the director of the Boston and Montana Band during the temporary absence of band founder Sam Treloar. The band played for huge crowds and won national acclaim and praise from noted composer John Philip Sousa. Its members all worked for the mines. When England declared war against Germany in 1914, Holman enlisted. He left Butte to serve on the British repair ship the HMS Cyclops.

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In 1890, the Butte Land and Investment Company announced: “There’s only one way Butte can grow—South.” Building activity between the central business district and the railroad/warehouse district of South Butte rose to a fever pitch, with 221 houses constructed in South-Central Butte in the 1890s. Between 1891 and 1899, contractors built mirror homes at 654 and 652 Colorado. Both were essentially four-room shotgun houses except each also incorporated an unusual two-story shingled tower. 652 was completely remodeled; owners of 654 removed the tower's pyramidal roof sometime after World War II. The home’s decorative shingling and turned porch supports reflect the ready availability of mass-produced architectural elements and the era’s enthusiasm for contrasting wall textures. Insurance collector John Sidley, his wife Tillie, and his sister Marjorie, a stenographer, lived here in 1899. In 1904, a harness-maker and purveyor of “turf goods” (horseracing supplies) rented the home, followed by a miner, a plasterer, and a watchman. From 1928 to 1975, Emmett Richley, who worked for a mining machinery company, lived here, where he and wife Nell raised two daughters.

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As settlers in the Bitterroot Valley pursued timber and farmland in the late nineteenth century, a mysterious illness appeared each spring bearing dramatic symptoms and a high mortality rate. Theories on Rocky Mountain spotted fever’s origins ranged from melting snow and decaying tree foliage to sawmill waste and household garbage. By 1908, pathologist Howard Taylor Ricketts proved that tick bites transmitted the bacterium that caused spotted fever. Ricketts’s untimely death and a state budget shortage in 1910 shifted efforts towards tick eradication rather than disease research. However, when spotted fever killed eleven Bitterroot residents including a state senator and his wife in 1921, a third wave of research began here at the recently vacated Canyon Creek schoolhouse. With electric lights, heating, and ample space, the then substantial two-story brick building was a major improvement over previous makeshift field stations. Lab employees faced hazardous conditions. Several contracted spotted fever at work and three died. A large sign posted outside the laboratory warned visitors that they entered at their own risk. In 1924, entomologist Ralph R. Parker and physician Roscoe R. Spencer developed a vaccine that, although time-consuming and expensive to produce, could prevent severe illness and death from spotted fever. Half a million people received the Spencer-Parker vaccine until the discovery of broad-spectrum antibiotics in the 1940s made it obsolete. In 1928, the team relocated to the new Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton. Despite later radical remodels, the “schoolhouse lab” remains a symbol of a critical turning point in the fight against spotted fever.

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A near twin to the Laux House one block east, contractors built this classic Queen Anne style home circa 1903. Both homes share the same roof form, flared eave returns, mixed shingle and clapboard siding, distinctive built-in cabinets, and spindlework staircase railings. The home’s first owners, Vigo and Petronella Klinke, operated a downtown general store and café with Vigo’s brother James. They also rented rooms to boarders. The Klinkes moved to Fortine in 1907 and various owners and renters occupied the home until 1924, when valley farmers Jerry and Julia Harrington purchased it. After Jerry died in 1925, their grown daughters Elizabeth and Violet remained at home to support their mother. Elizabeth was a bookkeeper for various companies and Violet spent forty-three years as a legal secretary. Both women were avid gardeners, St. Matthews Church parishioners, and Bridge Club members. Violet also donated time to the Young Democratic Club, March of Dimes, and Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Elizabeth and Violet remained in residence until their deaths in 1993 and 2002, respectively.

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Hillcrest Cemetery—one of Montana’s oldest existing active cemeteries—preserves the area’s history and the legacies of the families buried here. Graves dating from 1870 to the present mark the final resting place of more than 4,600 Deer Lodge area citizens. Residents created Hillcrest Cemetery when encroaching development impacted the city’s first urban burial grounds. By 1871, burials were well underway when landowner and mining investor Edwin H. Irvine officially donated ten acres on this hillside. The original cemetery plan featured four quadrants divided by an east-west and north-south wagon road. City officials laid out sections for Protestants, Catholics, Masons, and other fraternal organizations. In the 1880s, the city added sections for soldiers and prisoners, and in the early 1900s, Japanese railroad workers. Most of the earliest markers were wood though some were imported marble. In the mid-1880s, talented tombstone makers such as A. K. Prescott and George Pringle began creating skillfully carved and personalized monuments. Zinc markers, flat upright gravestones, tall obelisks, and flat stone markers were typical of the 1890s and early 1900s. Prominent grave markers recall wealthy ranchers and businessmen such as Thomas, James, and Granville Stuart; Conrad, Augusta, and William Kohrs; and the Bielenberg family. The ornate wrought-iron enclosure and distinctive marble gravestone marking copper king William A. Clark’s two children reflects the area’s late-nineteenth-century mining wealth. John G. Morony’s architect-designed Greek Revival style mausoleum recalls Montana’s early-twentieth-century prosperity. In contrast, twenty-four tombstones of Japanese residents and many unmarked and austere gravestones in the prison section bear quiet witness to the lives of these marginalized populations.

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Butte architect Henry M. Patterson designed this exuberant Queen Anne style home for Edwin and Jennie Mayo in 1896. Fish-scale siding, sunburst trim, and a half-round stained-glass window distinguished the home’s style and character. Interior amenities like bathrooms, electric lights, and hot water heat made it thoroughly modern. Edwin—a coal, hay, and grain dealer and mining investor—was a fourth ward alderman and one-time vice president of the city council. The Mayos sold the home in 1903 to John L. Carroll and wife Josephine. John owned a large grocery store and donated time to improving civic and business affairs. He served as fourth ward alderman, president of the Butte Commercial Club, a director at the Miners National Bank, and member of the Butte Rotary Club, Anti-Tuberculosis Society, and Y.M.C.A. During World War I, he became chairman of the city’s Fair Pricing Committee, a group of businessmen organized to limit food prices and fight inflation. Josephine died of pneumonia in 1914, and John remarried Alda Riter in 1916. After he died in 1939, Alda remained in residence until 1948.

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Intricate exterior masonry work and lavish interior woodwork characterize this distinctive bay-fronted brick home. Bernard and Minnie Noon likely built the home circa 1901. They shared it with Minnie’s parents, Patrick and Maria Whitty, and raised three children here. Bernard, a prominent lawyer and Democratic politician, started his career working for his uncle Patrick Largey, owner of the Speculator Mine. He also served in the state legislature and as a district court judge before organizing the East Butte, Tuolumne, and Pilot Butte mining companies. In 1918, his father-in-law Patrick was elected sheriff. The Noons sold the house to widower Cornelius P. Callahan in 1922. Cornelius sold life insurance and raised five of his six children here. In 1926, his fifteen-year-old daughter Marion became the first female to swim across Georgetown Lake near Anaconda, a distance of more than two miles. His sons Joseph W. and Cornelius Jr. served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Joseph received the Navy Cross for commanding the USS Ralph Talbot during action against Japanese forces on Rendova Island in the South Pacific in 1943.

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Speculator Mine hoist engineer David E. Parry purchased this two-story hipped roof house in 1905. He lived here with his wife Emma, daughter Juanita, and widowed mother Elizabeth. The modest miner’s cottage—likely built circa 1883—originally rested on a raised foundation close to the street. Soon after he bought it, David moved the house backwards, raised it to add a full first story, and added a two-story front porch with turned posts. David came to Butte from Wisconsin in 1883 with his Welsh parents. He began working as a hoist engineer at the Monitor Mine, which his father helped locate in 1886. David and family moved away in 1911, but his mother stayed and rented rooms to boarders for two more decades. After she died in 1934, David sold the home to pharmacist Romeo Campeau and his wife Clara. They shared the house with their daughter Corinne, her husband Harold Von Murrell, and son Raymond. Harold worked various day jobs, and at night he conducted the Von Murrell Orchestra, a local big band, until he died in 1968.

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England natives James C. and Amy Phillips built this classic Craftsman style home in 1909. Its heavy stone porch columns, steep roof, and imposing height belie its modest size. Initially, the house had a lower profile. Soon after the Phillips moved in, the city drastically re-graded all the streets in the neighborhood, leaving the Phillips’ house about nine feet higher than it was originally. The Phillips and numerous neighbors sued the city asking for funds to build retaining walls and stairs. Despite (or perhaps because of) James’s prominent position as copper king William A. Clark’s auditor, he only received $250 in damages. In 1918, Louis and Metta Quigley purchased the home. Louis was assistant superintendent of the Timber Butte Mine, and Metta raised their children and helped lead Chapter G of Butte’s P.E.O. Sisterhood, a nonprofit organization helping women advance through education. In 1929, blowing embers from a fire next door at 1133 spread to the Quigleys' roof, causing $3,000 damage. Respected physician and surgeon Dr. Thomas Shanley lived here with wife Anne and two children beginning in 1931.

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Joe and Viola Regis constructed this corner grocery store in 1942 after removing the original Old Town Grocery building at the same location. Initially, Joe and Viola retained the Old Town Grocery name, but in 1950 they further modernized, adding the colorful “REGIS GROCERY” neon sign above the entrance. The Carbon County News declared, “the new neon lighting around Regis’ grocery make the section look like a small city.” The building is a striking example of the Streamlined Moderne architectural style. Its smooth stucco walls, sleek curved parapet, and original metal-framed ribbon windows reflect aerodynamic designs that emerged in the 1930s in modern airplanes, ships, and automobiles. Separated from the main Red Lodge business district, the Regis Grocery served the surrounding ethnically diverse working-class neighborhood. When it opened, Red Lodge counted at least twelve other groceries. While the Regis thrived continuously for more than fifty-seven years, other small neighborhood groceries disappeared. Most customers walked to the store to buy canned goods, meats, cheeses, and fruits. In the 1950s, Joe also delivered large orders citywide in his 1957 Ford Fairlane Crown Victoria. Seasonally, Viola supplied the store with fresh vegetables from the large garden immediately behind the grocery. Many Red Lodge locals especially remember coming to the Regis for penny candy as children. The couple operated the store together until Joe died in 1989. Viola continued to welcome customers until she died in 1999.

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Luxurious interior woodwork hidden behind a modest façade characterizes this classic Craftsman style bungalow, built before 1900. The home’s coffered ceilings, paneled wainscotting, and a built-in hutch and bookcases in the dining room reflect a 1910s remodel and evoke the Craftsman style’s emphasis on organic materials. Robert C. and Ruth Rehfeld lived here with their son Clarence and Robert’s sister Belle Bennett from 1900 to 1906. Robert worked as a laborer, night watchman, and mail carrier at various times and Ruth, a singer, participated in the Butte Oratorio Society. Hotel Finlen barbershop owner William O. Hess owned the house for a short time before selling it to carpenter Frank Richard in 1907. When Frank purchased the property, it included a six-room house and a three-room cottage near the alley. He later expanded and richly redecorated the main house interior while completely rebuilding the rear cottage to house his carpentry shop. In 1910, Frank divorced his first wife and married Anna Menhennette in 1911. They raised one daughter in the home and were active members of the Butte Carpenter’s Union. Frank and Anna remained in residence until 1942.

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Anaconda Company carpenters built this Folk Victorian style home circa 1900. A central Palladian window and decorative bargeboard in the clipped gable end embellish the modest home. In 1903, Miles Romney Sr. and wife Bessie moved here. They published The Western News—an independent, weekly newspaper—and Miles Sr. became a politician working to limit corporate power in state government. He served as mayor of Hamilton from 1902 to 1904 and a Montana state senator from 1906 to 1910. In 1911, he created the People’s Power League, which successfully introduced pivotal ballot initiatives to reform corrupt election practices. Bessie died in 1925, and Miles Sr. died in 1943. Their son Miles Jr. and wife Ruth inherited the home and continued publishing the newspaper. Miles Jr. furthered his father’s political legacy, serving in the Montana legislature and as a delegate to the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention. He supported conservation efforts and created a coal tax trust fund, which turned a finite resource (coal) into a renewable one by investing the coal companies’ payments. He died in 1976; Ruth remained in residence until she died in 2000.

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