George Gohn, a butcher by trade, came to Alder Gulch with the first rush in June of 1863. A member of the vigilance committee and later elected to several county offices, Gohn ran a local meat market. The Gohn family lived in the house next door prior to 1867 until the completion of this fine one-and-one-half-story stone residence in 1892. Originally incorporated into the wooden house (which was moved eight feet west in 1990), the “pleasant and convenient” home boasted excellent stonework, “artistic painting,” and a very handsome interior finished in oak and maple. Most of the original features remain, including windows, doors, and porch brackets, reinforcing the frontier refinement of this well-cared for home.
]]>Austin and Hattie North established the North Elevation Subdivision in 1905. Within walking distance of McKinley Elementary and Billings’ downtown, “the Elevation” was a commonsense extension for the Yellowstone River Valley’s fastest growing city. The Elevation Company, owned by the Norths promoted lots with panoramic views of the city and promises of living near “the best families in Billings.” Early promotional literature emphasized the subdivision’s walkability—including its concrete sidewalks—as well as a potential streetcar system that would link the neighborhood to downtown. By 1913, the neighborhood’s promoters had embraced the automobile, advertising the subdivision’s “fine auto drives” and its miles of “smooth graded roads.” With the construction of the “new” St. Vincent’s Hospital, Deaconess Hospital (now Billings Clinic), and Eastern Montana Normal School (now MSU-Billings) in the 1920s, the neighborhood became home to teachers and doctors, as well as civic leaders. The current North Elevation Historic District is defined by Twelfth Avenue to the north, Ninth Avenue to the south, Thirty-Second Street to the west and the alley behind Thirtieth Street to the east. There are over 100 contributing homes in the district and over 60 of them are in the Craftsman style. These homes are identified by their wide overhanging eaves, projecting rafters, bands of windows, and the use of natural materials. There are also two contributing commercial properties within the district.
]]>Dredge mining in the late 1890s brought new life to Virginia City and a dire need for modern office and meeting space. In 1896, town citizens voted to issue bonds to build a multipurpose City Hall with space for the city, law offices, and social clubs. Butte architect C. S. Germain designed the building, and contractor Floyd Closser completed construction. Most of the town attended the dedication and grand ball held on February 22, 1897. Originally, the building was red brick with a central, square tower capped by a pyramidal roof above the central door. Pairs of tall brick-arched windows flanked the tower on each story. Inside, the first-floor auditorium had a stage on the south wall and a balcony across the north wall. An ornate golden oak staircase led upstairs to various lodge rooms, six law offices, and a kitchen and dining hall. The city sold the building to the upstairs tenant, the Elks Lodge No. 390, in 1948. The Elks remodeled the façade in the 1950s. In 2019 it was still home to the Elks Club and often used for civic and social gatherings.
]]>Optimistic about Great Falls’ future, town founder Paris Gibson authorized the plat of the Third Addition—the area that contains the East Side Neighborhood—in 1890. The Crash of 1893 slowed development, and a lone vernacular style home stood, surrounded by prairie, until 1911. That changed as the Electric City’s population more than doubled between 1910 and 1915. Families came to work in metal processing and refining, at electric dams and flour mills, with the railroads, and for the many businesses serving the region’s homesteaders. Soon white-collar workers filled First Avenue North with cozy Craftsman style “pattern book” houses, built from standardized construction plans published by national companies. Characterized by their deep eaves, front-facing gables, low-pitched roofs, wooden details, and large front porches, these homes offered comfortable family living at affordable prices. Because housing was in such demand, many also included basement apartments. World War I temporarily stalled construction, but in the 1920s two local contractors—both of whom also lived in the neighborhood—helped spur a second building boom. After 1925, brick-clad homes with Prairie style elements complemented their wood-sided Craftsman style neighbors. Neighborhood residents appreciated the proximity of Central High School (later the junior high and now Paris Gibson Square) as well as their easy access to the trolley, which ran down Central Avenue until 1931. They continue to benefit from the foresighted “City Beautiful” advocates, who lined the streets with large deciduous trees. East Side Neighborhood homes continue to possess a remarkable degree of architectural integrity, and the neighborhood remains a testament to an earlier era.
]]>The Lyman-Neel Residence and its many occupants reflect the ever-changing character of the North Rodney Street neighborhood. Soon after Helena’s first county courthouse opened in 1867, merchants and professionals established Helena’s first fashionable neighborhood along Rodney Street in the “quiet part of town.” Lawyer and U.S. Land Office register Lorenzo Lyman had this Free Classic Queen Anne style home built in 1873. The Lymans lived comfortably, enjoying leaded-glass windows, decorative woodwork, a garden, chickens, and a cow. In 1875, the Lymans sold everything to mercantile owners Samuel and Lavinia Neel. Samuel died suddenly in 1882, and Lavinia moved to California. Seeing opportunity in Helena’s booming population, Lavinia kept the house for rental income. By the early 1890s, the prestigious part of town had moved to the West Side, and this became a boarding house. In 1898, African-American businesswoman Alice Palmer lived downstairs with her mother and five children and rented the upstairs rooms to African-American tenants. Contractor Charles Stabern bought the house in 1901, and it remained a multi-family dwelling until 1927, when Reverend Edwin Klemme returned it to a single-family home. In 1930, associate Montana Supreme Court Justice Sam C. Ford and wife Mary bought the house. When Ford became Montana governor in 1941, the family moved into the governor’s mansion. He rented this house to boarders, resuming residence after his terms ended in 1949. With no children living at home, the Fords lived downstairs, renting out the upstairs rooms. Sam Ford died in 1961, and Mary remained in residence as landlady until her death in 1972.
]]>Wayne and Ethel Gordon’s 1939 home is one of two Cape Cod style homes in the North Elevation Historic District. The steep side-gable roof, gabled dormers, and elegant front door entablature are key stylistic elements. After completing medical school and then teaching at the University of Chicago, Dr. Wayne Gordon became one of the first internists at Deaconess Hospital (now Billings Clinic) in 1936. Wayne was Deaconess chief of staff for many years and organized annual conferences as governor of the American College of Physicians Wyoming/Montana chapter. He and wife Ethel raised two boys here and were active members in the community and the First Baptist Church. Ethel was president of the Montana Baptist Woman’s Society, and board vice president of the Billings YWCA. In 1957, Ethel and Wayne founded the Friendship House, a charity serving minority children and families that still thrives today. Their son Roger and family moved into the home in 1959 when Wayne became professor of medicine, and Ethel, supervisor of photography, at Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. The house remained in the Gordon family until 1980.
]]>Built between 1923 and 1927, this building—now a triplex but originally a duplex—is a relatively late addition to the neighborhood. Several elements distinguish it, including its placement set back from the street. The choice of stucco siding—a fashionable modern material in the 1920s—flat roof, and stepped parapet (wall along the roof’s edge) reference the Spanish Eclectic style. Built for the automobile age, each three-room duplex came with its own garage. One garage faced the alley and the other (converted into a third apartment by the 1950s) faced the street. Early residents include trucker John Galusha and wife Barbara in 1930 and carpenter Samuel Moe in 1932. The apartments rented for $28 per month in the 1930s, or about $550 in 2019 dollars. In 1946, widow Mary Gore and her son Alfred, a tile-layer, purchased the property. Mary lived here from 1947 until her death in 1954. During her occupancy, other tenants included a school principal, Northern Pacific Railroad employees, and Mary’s son Alfred and his wife Ernestine. Alfred and Ernestine owned the building until 1980.
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Mrs. Lillie, as many tenants knew her, managed this apartment building from her first-floor unit for nearly fifty years. Architect Marin D. Kern designed the building in 1908 for Lillie and her husband John R. Ross. It was originally two stories with open front porches. John was a power engineer at the Steward Mine, and Lillie was at home with her younger brother, William, and daughter, Louise. John died of cancer in 1909, and Lillie married John’s friend, pipefitter Albert C. McNeil, in 1910. The McNeils added a third story in 1913 and enclosed the front porches in 1918. Lillie divorced Albert on June 4, 1929, but remained sole owner of the building, despite a lawsuit in which Albert claimed half-ownership. Three weeks after her divorce, Lillie married barber James C. Crook. James and Lillie enjoyed cross-country road trips, and Lillie was president of the Alpine chapter of the Rocky Mountain Garden Club. After James died in 1951 and Lillie in 1956, the building fell into grave disrepair. Sandy and Carl Donahue rescued it from demolition in the 1990s and converted it into a single-family home.
]]>Fire destroyed the first commercial building on this lot in 1886, but owner Walter Ayrault quickly invested $1,000 to replace it. In 1901, the Northern Pacific Railroad expanded its repair shops, ensuring Livingston’s growth; the next year, C. H. Hefferlin purchased the one-story business block. Sometime between 1910 and 1918, Hefferlin replaced the wood-frame building with a new brick commercial block; around the same time, his father, who was also a real estate developer, constructed the building’s near twin two doors down. A pair of recessed panels above the windows offers room to advertise two separate businesses. However, a single business—usually an eatery—occupied this entire structure after 1922. Many of the restaurants’ owners were immigrants. They included Thomas McCarthy (Ireland), Matsutaro “Thomas” Miyagishima (Japan), George D. Pavelis (Greece), and Louie Do Jum (China). Cities encouraged brick and stone construction as a fire prevention measure, but it wasn’t always successful. A 2003 fire destroyed all but the building’s newly restored façade, which today still looks much as it did in the 1920s, when customers patronized the Busy Bee Cafe.
]]>Young middle-class professional families flocked to the North Elevation neighborhood after 1905 in search of modern homes in a quiet suburban setting. Rows of welcoming Craftsman bungalows with wide front porches and simple decorative details like knee braces and exposed rafter tails in the eaves became the dominant neighborhood style. Railway mail service clerk Harold Madson and his wife Winnifred, a former librarian, lived here between 1909 and 1922. By 1930, bridge engineer Frank Robbins and wife Gladys, a stenographer, lived here with their two boys and a teenage maid. A third boy was born in 1934. Frank lost an arm in a bridge construction accident in 1925, but he continued to work for the Montana Highway Commission for many years. In her spare time, Gladys organized study groups on liberal arts topics for the local Delphian Society’s Delta chapter, a national organization that promoted the education of women. Through many owners, the home has retained its original character and remains a fine example of the Craftsman style.
]]>A visit to Los Angeles, California, in 1929 to attend the Elks Club national convention may have inspired Charles and Nora Carroll to build this distinctive Monterey style home in 1930. The style, rarely built in Montana, was popular in Texas and California in the 1930s and 1940s. Derived from early-nineteenth-century houses found in the southeastern United States, the Caribbean, and the Bahamas, the Monterey style featured stucco walls and cantilevered balconies with exposed floor joists. The $7,000 home reflected the Carrolls’ social and economic status. Charles was a well-known civic, social, and business leader, dubbed the “dean of the insurance business in Billings.” He spent forty-six years selling life insurance, was an “exalted ruler” of the Elks Club, a second ward alderman, two-term Chamber of Commerce vice president, director on many boards and committees, and a forty-year chairman with the American Red Cross. Nora was active with the Elks Club, the American Legion Auxiliary, and hosted and attended many Bridge Club luncheons. After raising two children here, the Carrolls sold the home in 1948.
]]>By 1884, a barbershop and restaurant occupied a one-story frame building on this lot. Fire destroyed much of Main Street in 1886, but owner Frederick Wright quickly rebuilt, again of wood. Saloons, restaurants, and barbershops remained the primary tenants. In 1898, Wright sold the building to C. S. Hefferlin. Hefferlin, who arrived in Livingston in 1883 to work as head ticket agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad, was responsible for the construction of at least a dozen of Livingston’s brick commercial buildings. Around 1915, perhaps to rid the block of one of its last wooden structures, he transformed the building into a restrained one-story brick business block. He also added a rear addition. An expanse of brick with two recessed panels separates the plate-glass windows from the cornice, providing a place for advertising and making the façade look larger than it would otherwise. The building continued to house two storefronts into the 1970s. As late as 1942, the barbershop in the left half of the building offered baths, a common service before indoor plumbing was universal. Restaurants and cafes primarily occupied the other storefront.
]]>When the Northern Pacific Railroad announced plans to build a branch line to Yellowstone National Park in the early 1880s, the small town of Gardiner quickly emerged as a “wild west” town. Early accounts labeled it “a veritable Shantyville . . . an ideal squatter town, with the rudest houses.” Though the branch line didn’t arrive until 1902, coal mines to the north, gold mines to the south, poachers in the park, and troops at nearby Fort Yellowstone brought a steady stream of men to drink, gamble, and visit prostitutes. General lawlessness ruled until Park County was created in 1887 and county officials hired a constable and built the first Gardiner jail. The jail burned down in 1898 and again Gardiner was without a place to lock up unruly drunks and criminals. The first trains of tourists arrived in Gardiner in summer 1902 to lewd displays. The local newspaper proclaimed, “Monday night there was almost continuous yelling and shooting from midnight to daylight. Women of ill-fame live in the central part of town and exhibit themselves daily on the streets in bedroom wrappers and make a show of themselves in doors and windows on arrival of the train.” Much to some residents’ relief, Gardiner’s sturdy sandstone jail was ready for its first inmates by mid-September 1903. Unchanged today, the interior still holds its original three-cell block and the walls, floor, and ceiling—inscribed with five decades of graffiti—offer the only record of its many short-term occupants.
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When railroads replaced steamboats, Fort Benton’s importance as a trade center declined. In response, Fort Benton businessmen formed the Benton Bridge Company to construct a bridge across the Missouri River to capture the trade of the rapidly developing Judith Basin. This first steel bridge across the Missouri River in Montana made it possible for ranchers and farmers to ship their livestock and grain from the Fort Benton railhead. It thus preserved Fort Benton’s significance to regional trade. Since the Missouri was classified as a navigable waterway, the newly formed Benton Bridge Company needed federal permission to build. Congress approved the project after requiring that one span be built on a pivot so the bridge could open to let boats through. In 1888, the firm of Haney and Ryan began sinking the bridge’s piers, which they protected with ice breaks built of heavy timbers. The work was dangerous; two men died during construction. The Milwaukee Bridge and Iron Works Company built the steel and iron superstructure. On completion, the newspaper declared the 825-foot, six-span, pin-connected, through-truss bridge “as strong and durable as it is handsome.” It cost pedestrians 5 cents and a horse and buggy 25 cents to cross. Each head of cattle cost 12.5 cents, with special rates for large droves. The county purchased the structure in 1892. After June 1908 floods washed out the swing span, the Army Corps of Engineers gave permission to replace it with a permanent pin-connected, steel Parker through truss span. Vehicles continued to cross the Missouri over “the Great Iron Bridge” until 1962.
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W. H. Campbell, a physician, president of the Montana State Board of Medical Examiners, and two-term state senator from Park County, built this Queen Anne style home in 1890. The one-and-one-half-story residence has a central hipped roof with two cross gables and an open front porch, a common Queen Anne style arrangement. The elegant home features distinctive spindlework and stickwork decorations. These include delicately turned porch supports and curved porch support braces, roof cresting, gable ornaments, and decorative horizontal and vertical wooden bands interrupting otherwise flat wall surfaces. Finely milled woodwork ornaments the interior. In 1900, Czech immigrants William and Mary Hruza purchased the home, where they raised three children. William owned the Cold Storage Market. Each week, his packing plant processed about 10,000 pounds of beef, 6,000 pounds of pork, 3,000 pounds of mutton, and 1,500 pounds of veal, some of which came from his own ranches. William died in 1923, but Mary continued to reside here until her death in 1949. The home has remained in the family for four generations.
]]>The local firm of Wasmandorff and Eastman designed this expressive Craftsman style home with Tudor Revival details for Roy and Ellen Ayers in 1913. The steep, overhanging gable roof, small multi-pane leaded glass windows, and false half-timber woodwork in the gable ends recalls medieval English manor house construction. The elegant upper story in combination with the stately porch and lower walls made from local brick reflects the Ayers’ upper-middle-class status without being overly ostentatious. Ellen, a homemaker and Roy, an attorney, raised a daughter and two boys here and spent more than twenty years cultivating Roy’s impressive political career. Both Roy and Ellen Ayers were born into ranch families and attended rural schools. Roy received his law degree from Valparaiso University in 1903 and served as Fergus County attorney from 1905 to 1909. In 1913, at age thirty-one, he was elected Tenth Judicial District Court Judge. He lost the seat to his Republican neighbor, J. C. Huntoon, in 1922. In 1931, he was elected representative to the U.S. Congress, where he served two terms. In 1936, the Ayers moved to Helena when Roy was elected Montana governor at the height of the Great Depression. During his administration, he expanded state agencies, eliminated the state deficit, and lowered state bond interests. Throughout his life he remained a friend to ranchers, labor unions, and the disadvantaged. The Ayers did not return to this home after Roy lost re-election in 1940, but it remains an outstanding local example of its type and a monument to a remarkable career.
]]>Virginia City’s alleys, just like its main streets, hold many fine examples of territorial-era buildings. This barn, built for surgeon Dr. Ira Smith in 1874, represents a classic Montana horse barn. Virginia City’s earliest barns were built from hand-hewn logs, notched together at the corners. Dr. Smith’s barn, however, was built with milled wood from a local sawmill. It still has sturdy timber framing and rafters, but the milled board-and-batten siding made it a relatively modern barn for the time. Although Dr. Smith had an office on Wallace Street (McGovern Store), his horse and carriage were vital to making house calls to patients in the county. In August 1884, Dr. Smith went to visit a patient, but his carriage overturned en route, killing him instantly. His brothers in the Nevada Masonic Lodge raised funds for his gravestone, which still stands in the Virginia City cemetery. The barn’s subsequent owners added sheds on both sides of the barn by 1904. Dry goods shop owner Hanna McGovern bought the barn in 1914, and it remained in the McGovern family until 1954.
]]>Alice Bell lived in this cross-gable residence for over fifty years. She and husband Frank moved here with their two young children in 1914. Narrow clapboard siding, gable-end returns, and multi-paned windows give the home an understated elegance. Frank was a prominent dentist, who brought the first electric drill to Billings. However, he was even better known as a pilot. After attending flight school and earning his pilot’s license in San Diego, he returned to Billings with his own airplane. Eight thousand spectators—some of whom arrived in Billings on special excursion trains from Red Lodge and Lewistown—gathered to watch Dr. Bell’s aerial display on May 30, 1913. Bell flew from Billings to Laurel and then to Park City, the longest flight in Montana at the time. Artist J. K. Rolston commemorated Bell’s flight in a 1958 mural, which remains on display in the Billings airport. The Bells clearly loved the home and the neighborhood. Son Norman, who joined his father’s dentistry practice, purchased a house just down the street in 1939.
]]>Noted Billings architect J. G. Link designed this two-story residence circa 1921. It is one of only four architect-designed homes in the North Elevation Historic District. A classic American Foursquare, or “Prairie Box,” the house features a symmetrical façade, low-hipped roof, wide overhanging eaves, a full-width, hipped-roof porch, and horizontal accents. The walls are clad in stucco, a fashionable and modern material in the 1920s. Many Prairie Box designs incorporated secondary details from other styles. Link used blonde brick to create quoins (corner accents) and the home originally featured a tile roof, details common to the Italian Renaissance and Mission styles respectively. A tuck-under garage accessed from the back of the house answered the needs of the modern age while maintaining a front façade that complemented the block’s other homes. Attorney Manton Lamb and his wife Opal, an active club woman, purchased the house by 1921. Opal sold the home in 1949. The longest resident was avid gardener Edith Yapuncich, who lived here with husband John, a chemist, and their nine children. Edith was in residence from 1955 to 2003.
]]>In the mid-1860s stores, hotels, and businesses lined both sides of Jackson Street near Idaho. The road was bustling with pedestrians and noisy teams of horses and wagons traveling on the toll road that led South to Summit. The Tootle, Leach & Co. mercantile occupied this site in 1863. Tootle, Leach & Co. had stores across the West that sold a wide variety of items from women’s dresses to toys and farm implements. In the fall of 1864, the store moved to the imposing new Masonic Temple storefront on Wallace Street. Many businesses followed suit by 1870. Traffic died down considerably, and Jackson Street above Idaho became residential. The original store on the site was either torn down and rebuilt or remodeled into a house by 1878. Widow Mary Hargrave held part interest in the building in the late 1880s and James and Mary Vanderbeck bought the house in 1898. The Vanderbecks had six children, were active in community affairs, operated a grocery store on Wallace St., and ran a brickyard just outside town until the early 1930s.
]]>Henry Gilbert and Christian Richter brought German-style lager beer to thirsty Virginia City miners in 1864 and began bottling it in this stone and brick building in 1875. For much of the nineteenth century, American brewers made a heavier, English-style ale, which was faster and easier to produce. In contrast, lager beer, a light and crisp beer common in Germany, demanded special yeast and precise storage conditions to brew. Richter knew this trickier “lagering” process and perfected it using fresh water from Daylight Creek, imported yeast, and barley from Gilbert’s farm in Madison County. Gilbert bought out Richter in 1872, and expanded the brewery with the introduction of bottling. Stores and saloons now had the option to order smaller quantities of bottled beer in cases, or the traditional, large wooden kegs. Empty bottles were returned to the brewery, sanitized, and used again and again. Gilbert’s lager claimed gold medals at the 1893 and 1904 World’s Fairs. The brewery struggled to sell soda during Prohibition, and closed in 1922. Charles and Sue Bovey renovated the building into a pottery studio in 1946.
]]>Contractor Thomas O’Neil, who lived nearby on North Thirtieth, likely built this handsome American Foursquare home as well as the smaller rental property at the back of the lot. Notable for their efficient use of space, dignified Foursquares made the most of every buildable inch, providing the most house for the lowest cost. As the name implies, Foursquare houses are roughly square in plan with four rooms on each floor arranged around a central hall. Elmer and Gertrude Veltum moved into the home by 1908 shortly after they arrived in Billings. Sadly, Elmer did not get to enjoy the home for long. A joint freight agent for the Northern Pacific and Burlington Northern, Elmer died of typhus in 1910 at age forty-eight. Gertrude died six years later, but son Thayne, who worked as an assistant baggage agent, and his wife Mabel remained in residence. After Thayne died in 1959, Mabel added a small attached garage and temporarily converted the residence into two apartments. She remained at home until 1986, two years before her death at age one hundred.
]]>Like the Picture Gallery, the Elling Store, and several others, this 1946 building and its neighbor to the left are a faithful reconstruction of the originals. The Elephant Auction House occupied these storefronts from summer 1863 until October 1864. By November 1866, William (Judge) Douglas had painted the storefront a deep azure blue and opened the Blue Front Novelty Store. Douglas leased stalls to various small businesses that offered everything from books and magazines to stationery, toys, produce, footwear, and cigarettes. The sword-wielding man painted on the façade advertised the store’s Turkish tobacco products. William Buttermore bought the store in 1879. He ran it with few changes until his death in 1911. At the time, it was one of Virginia City’s longest-lived businesses. Despite its status as a beloved institution in town, the Blue Front was torn down, most likely in winter 1919. A nationwide coal miners’ strike and ensuing coal shortage hit Virginia City hard, forcing freezing residents to tear down and salvage numerous abandoned buildings for firewood. After reconstruction, the building served as a penny arcade for nearly 40 years.
]]>Fire swept through this block in 1915 destroying all the wood-frame buildings between Stonewall Hall on the west and the F. R. Merk building on the east. Originally this site was home to a small, wood-frame, false-front building. Hellman & Co. clothing store located here in 1865-66, Poznansky and Rosenstein Dry Goods store in early 1867, and Schiller’s Clothing Emporium in 1867. Eastern European immigrants Poznansky, Rosenstein, and Schiller all belonged to a close-knit Jewish community that moved on as Virginia City’s economy slowed in the late 1860s. The building likely sat vacant for much of the 1880s and 1890s, but a saloon occupied the site by 1904. After the 1915 fire, Elbridge Smith built this modest, cream-colored brick commercial building and opened an electric appliance shop. Smith was an electrical engineer in the mining industry and owned a ten-stamp mill in Williams Gulch. In the 1930s, Charles Goldsmith ran a jewelry store here, and the Miner’s Café opened in the late 1950s. The building has been home to the Virginia City Café since the early 1970s.
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