Built in 1915, this Craftsman style residence was the longtime home of Ray and Olga Wise. Craftsman homes featured varied, natural materials and subtle detailing, seen here in the narrow clapboard and shingle siding, triangular brackets, exposed rafter tails, and checkerboard step risers. An open front porch included in the home’s main footprint reinforces the style’s goal of bridging the natural and domestic worlds. A talented bridge player, Olga raised three children here. Ray spent his career at the Billings Brewery, becoming secretary/treasurer in 1908. The manufacturer of “The Beer that Makes Milwaukee Jealous,” the brewery poured a reported $12,000 worth of product into the gutter in 1919, at the start of Prohibition. It survived the 1920s as “Advance Manufacturing,” bottling “Top Notch, A Modern Beverage,” which it promoted as “mildly stimulating without the aid of alcoholic properties.” After Prohibition ended in 1933, the brewery took back its old name, and once again began manufacturing Old Fashion Beer, “a food to tired, weak, overwrought nerves.” Ray worked at Billings Brewery until his death in 1945 at fifty-eight. Olga remained in residence until 1950.
]]>Not long after Lester and Mabel Punch moved to Billings in 1919, they purchased this house in the growing North Elevation subdivision. Although it now has modern windows and siding, the home’s open porch, tapered porch columns, and decorative braces under wide, overhanging eaves still recall the 1910s and the era’s popular Craftsman style. The manager of the Foley Brothers Grocery, Lester made a large impact on civic life. During his seven years in Billings, he served as president of the Kiwanis Club and a member of the Billings Park Board; he also “played a prominent part in the work of the YMCA and Commercial club and [other] kindred activities....” The Punches sold their home to Arnold Rich. The automobile dealer lived here until 1932 with wife Stella, two daughters, and sister Pauline, who worked as a librarian at the nearby normal school (now MSU-B). Later occupants included county extension agent Bruce McKee and his wife Mabel and store clerk Laura Lemmer and her son, William, who worked as a printer for the Gazette.
]]>Before his death in 1896, pioneering Jewish businessman William Weinstein owned many lots, including this one, in Philipsburg. By 1902, his daughter Alice Weinstein Hannah owned the property and the one-story wooden dwelling that stood on the site, which she undoubtedly rented to local miners and their families. She sold the home in 1913 to Missoula resident Leanorah Damuth. Damuth lost the property for back taxes in 1923, and in 1927 Louada Smith purchased the lots and all improvements for $248.75. A divorced mother of four, Louada married miner John Flascher the following year. Soon thereafter, the family built this one-and-one-half-story, gable-front home, valued in 1930 at $2,400. The home originally sported full-width front and rear porches, both of which were later enclosed.
]]>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.
]]>One of only a few Colonial Revival style homes in the historic district, this side-gable, two-story residence dates to circa 1913. Clapboard siding, a centered entry, windows with shutters, and an enclosed side porch are Colonial Revival style hallmarks. Queen Anne style spindles encircle the porch and square columns with Italianate-inspired brackets support the front entry, illustrating the eclectic mix of architectural elements common in the early 1900s. The first documented residents were the William and Laura Lawson family. William pioneered Montana’s sugar beet industry, managing the Billings Sugar Company. He later was vice president of the Colorado-based Holly Sugar Company. The Lawsons hosted many parties and were avid bridge players. By 1930, Peter and Beulah Rowan owned the home. Peter was the owner of the Billings Chrysler-Plymouth dealership and very involved in civic affairs. He was a director of the Deaconess Hospital, a twenty-five-year member of the YMCA board, helped found the Billings Community Concert Association, and was a longtime member of the Kiwanis Club and Chamber of Commerce. The Rowan family retained ownership until the 1980s.
]]>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.
]]>Dubbed one of Billings’ “pioneer building contractors,” Emanuel Lindstrom waited until age thirty-eight to marry twenty-two-year-old Radina Holen, a fellow immigrant from Norway. In 1913, the Lindstroms moved into this Prairie style residence, where they raised three children. The two-story American Foursquare home features restrained geometric ornamentation, a hipped roof with extended eaves and a central attic dormer, and a wraparound front porch, enclosed sometime after 1958. Between 1912 and 1923, the Lindstroms added a two-car garage, a reflection of the growing importance of automobiles to North Elevation homeowners. Home prices suffered during the Great Depression and the residence, valued at $10,000 in 1930, was worth only $6,500 in 1940. Benjamin Harwood purchased the residence from the Lindstroms in 1937, just a year after Benjamin was first elected district judge. A dedicated jurist, Ben was also interested in aviation. A World War I pilot wounded in France, he was instrumental in developing the Billings airport as chairman of the airport commission. He and his wife Nina lived here until 1971.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>Built in 1915 at the height of Craftsman style popularity, this two-story home features the style’s characteristic exposed rafter tails and inviting front porch. Less typical is the way the porch extended over the driveway to create a sheltered place to park. The home also had a one-car garage facing the alley, a common amenity in Billings’ first automobile suburb. William and Olive Ladd and their two children lived here by 1917. A grain broker who advertised that he would “pay the high dollar” for carload lots of “wheat, beans, and hay,” William participated in Billings’ booming commodities market. In the 1920s, building and loan manager Joseph McMahon and his wife Catherine purchased the home, where they lived with their seven children. The McMahons were committed and active Catholics. Catherine helped organize fundraisers for Catholic orphanages and St. Vincent’s Orthopedic Hospital, while Joseph was a state-wide leader with the Knights of Columbus. Their fashionable home bustled with social activities—from bridge parties to progressive dinners. In the early 1940s, this was the childhood home of John Bohlinger, Montana’s twenty-ninth lieutenant governor.
]]>A near twin to a home designed by renowned architect Percy Bentley in La Crosse, Wisconsin, this two-story Prairie style residence was built circa 1912 for Louis and Sarah Dousman. The Dousmans had close connections to La Crosse, where Sarah was raised. Louis was from nearby Prairie Du Chien, the grandson of fur trade magnate L. H. Dousman. The couple moved to Billings on the advice of Sarah’s father, who had investments here. Louis began his career with the Billings Land and Irrigation Company. He later operated the Montana Mortgage Company and invested heavily in real estate. Like other Prairie style homes, this residence features a low-hipped roof, extended eaves, a one-story porch with large square supports, and a wide central chimney. Distinguishing features include the row of second-story casement windows, distinctively patterned siding, and the unusual stair hall set at a forty-five-degree angle to the rest of the house. Louis died in 1955, and a year later Sarah sold the home to Mary Sullivan and her husband, Dr. Paul Sullivan, a surgeon who practiced at the nearby Saint Vincent Hospital.
]]>Built c. 1916, this one-and-one-half-story bungalow still looks much as it did when card parties and club luncheons filled its owners’ social calendars. As is typical with the Craftsman style, knee braces ornament wide overhanging eaves, and a low-pitched shed dormer efficiently expands the home’s livability. Wooden lap siding clads the exterior, and removable glass storm windows enclose the front porch, just as they would have in the winter of 1917. That year, insurance company manager Daniel Hynds, his wife Kathleen, and their thirty-year-old son Harry, a traveling salesman, made 1111 North 32 Street their home. Billings banker Fred Marble and wife Lillian purchased the bungalow in the late 1920s. Like other North Elevation residents, their names appeared frequently in the newspaper’s social pages. Walter Foster, the superintendent of a meat packing company, purchased the home in 1936. His wife Louie May continued the familiar social whirl, hosting bridge parties, the Congregational Woman’s Society, and other familiar functions.
]]>The prominent brick chimney that dominates the façade of this one-story clapboard home pays homage to the Tudor style. The open front porch, wide overhanging eaves, and exposed roof beams are common Craftsman style features. Frieda Kohn lived here in 1920 with her husband Jerome, a cigar salesman who believed “in going after business rather than waiting for business to come to him.” That year Jerome sold enough subscriptions to the Billings Gazette to win $300 in gold. Had he won the grand prize, a Hudson sedan, he would have had to park it on the street. Unlike most of its neighbors, the house did not have a garage until after 1958. Optometrist Albert Hoose and his wife Alise owned the residence in the 1930s, but the home’s longest occupants were Norman and Julia Bell. The couple moved here as newlyweds in 1939. An oral surgeon in practice with his father, Norman grew up down the street at 1023. Norman died in 1987; Julia, who owned a knitting store, remained in residence until her death in 2001.
]]>One of sixty Craftsman style residences in the North Elevation district, this circa 1916 home features many hallmarks of the style. These include triangular knee braces, exposed rafter tails, and, at the time of construction, a full-width, open front porch. This style—popularized in California—relied on porches to connect the occupants to the natural world, but many Montanans chose to enclose their porches. Located in an early automobile suburb, the home at one time had a narrow drive-in basement garage. In 1920, restaurant owner Samuel Roberts and his wife, Clara, an elocution teacher, rented the home. In approximately 1929, Chas. B. and Katherine Hurd, later of Hurd Lumber Co., bought the residence. They lived here with their daughter, Marian, while they built a new home nearby on Locust Street. In the 1930s, dentist Raymond Kelley and his wife Edna purchased the home, where they lived for over twenty years. During World War I, Raymond had served as a second lieutenant in France while Edna worked with injured veterans at Fort McHenry in Baltimore in the new field of physical therapy.
]]>Simplicity, honesty, functionality, and efficiency were the architectural watchwords of the 1910s. Craftsman style bungalows like this one embodied the era’s minimalist aesthetic, and the style took the nation—and Billings—by storm. Characteristic of the Craftsman style, this circa 1915 home features a low-pitched roof pierced by a large dormer, leaded glass windows, and exposed rafter tails. More unique is the home’s side-gable orientation and vertical siding. The residence’s first occupant was Leslie Miller, the manager of Russell Milling Company. In 1919, Rockwood and Elizabeth Brown purchased the home, where they raised their four children. A few years later, they planted a blue spruce in the front yard, where it still stood in 2018. In 1946, on a trip to Seattle, Rockwood saw an outdoor brick fireplace with built-in oven and grill. On his return, he had a similar one constructed in the backyard. A prominent Billings attorney, Rockwood served on the State Highway Commission, the State Water Conservation Board, and the City Park Commission. Although Rockwood died in 1956, Elizabeth lived here until her death at the age of 103 in 1989.
]]>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.
]]>The first owner of this one-and-one-half-story home, Matthew Barry, owned the Barry Motor Company, a car garage and “livery”—or rental service. Perhaps that’s why he built a garage (recently replaced) to match the home. Both house and garage had decorative braces, exposed rafter tails, and clapboard siding, all Craftsman style elements. The home’s interior features a built-in china hutch; built-in cabinetry epitomized the Craftsman style ideal of efficiency and simplicity. Barry lived here only briefly; in 1918, Florence and Edwin Sackett rented the home, purchasing it in 1923. Apparently, the family did not share Barry’s love of automobiles; their daughter remembered growing up without a car during the Great Depression. After working as the city clerk and recorder, Edwin joined the First Federal Savings and Loan in 1929, where he made his career, retiring as president in 1964. Active in the Episcopal church, the Kiwanis Club, the BPOE, and the PEO, the Sacketts transformed this house into a home, raising two daughters and hosting cut-throat card parties. They lived here until their deaths, Edwin in 1978 and Florence in 1991.
]]>This classic example of an American Foursquare house with Prairie style details was completed by 1916 when photographer Frank Crosby was hired to capture the fashionable new North Elevation subdivision. The term Foursquare describes the house’s floorplan, which featured a central hall and four equal-size rooms on each floor. The house’s graceful curvilinear rafter tails supporting the wide overhangs and its full-width front porch are its strongest Prairie style elements. While most of the houses in the neighborhood were built with open front porches, 1125’s porch was originally screened. Tailor Frank Burns and his wife Annie, an organist, lived here a short time, followed in 1925 by pharmacist Frank V. Patterson and his wife, Minnie. Frank and Minnie lived here for twenty years and ran two locations of the Patterson Pharmacy, one in the Hart-Albin building and one on Minnesota Avenue. Frank served three terms on the Montana Board of Pharmacy, which was created by the legislature in 1905 to regulate the profession. Socially, he was active in the Knights of Columbus, while Minnie was a member of the Rebekah Lodge.
]]>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.
]]>Valued at $7,000 in 1930, this newly built residence was home to grocer Robert Milligan, his wife Ida Mae, their three children, a fourteen-year-old niece, and a live-in servant. The one-and-one-half story, front-gabled house features Craftsman bungalow-style details. These include exposed rafter tails and roof beams, triangular knee braces, clapboard siding, a covered porch entrance, single dormers, and multi-pane windows. Ida Mae Milligan sold the home to Wylie and Grace Johnston in August 1930. A division freight and passenger agent for Burlington Railroad, Wylie was an active member of several fraternal orders in town, including the Billings Masonic Lodge. He was Grace’s second husband, and before she and Wylie married in 1927, she was raising three children with the help of her parents, while working as a clerk for the D. J. Cole Department Store. Unlike most women of the era, Grace continued to work after she and Wylie married, even going on a month-long buying trip in 1928 to Chicago and New York. The home continues to stand as an excellent example of Craftsman style architecture in the North Elevation Historic District.
]]>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.
]]>A pedimented entryway and multi-pane transom window are among the Greek Revival style elements that decorate this side-gable brick home, built c. 1932 for Julius and Anna Clavadetscher. A talented cellist, Julius played with the Minneapolis Symphony before moving to Billings in 1917, where he joined a musical ensemble that accompanied silent pictures at the Strand Theater. In addition to working as a union musician, he founded and directed the Ladies Ensemble in 1926 and taught thousands of Billings students as the longtime junior high and high school music teacher. Starting in 1929, he also directed the Rotary Boys Band, without whom, a 1940 newspaper article declared, “no public parade in Billings is complete.” Anna, who lived here until her death in 1954, was prominent in Yellowstone County Democratic circles. She served as vice chair of the county central committee, congressional committeewoman from the second district, president of the Democratic Women’s Club, and delegate to the 1949 presidential inauguration of Harry Truman. All of the Clavadetscher children played music; Carl followed his mother into politics, serving as Billings mayor from 1959 to 1962.
]]>Rapid changes in technology, industry, and social customs marked the Jazz Age of the 1920s. In the face of short skirts and speakeasies, many Americans longed for a supposedly simpler past. The Tudor style’s story-book charm and emblematic decorative half-timbering, prominent chimney, steeply pitched gable roofs, and multi-paned windows appealed to this nostalgia. While the exterior design reflected suburbanites’ ambivalence toward modernity, the homes themselves offered all the modern conveniences. The style was popular nationwide in the 1920s but is rare in the North Elevation neighborhood. By 1930, the one-story stucco and brick cottage was home to Henry and Mabel Coleman and their two children. A prominent Billings attorney, Henry arrived in Billings as a young lawyer in 1909 and dedicated himself to his adopted community as an avid booster, serving as an active Rotarian, alderman, and president of the Billings Commercial Club. Mabel was gifted golfer and bridge champion. The Colemans lived here until their deaths, Henry’s in 1962 and Mabel’s in 1969.
]]>The elegant Second Empire style, rare in Helena, is beautifully expressed in this three-story residence built circa 1880 during Helena’s stint as territorial capital. Jerome and Marcia Norris, longtime resident owners, counted Helena’s social elite among their circle of friends. Jerome had cattle interests and several butcher shops. After 1884, he changed careers to ore mining. By the 1900s, the Norrises took in boarders. Among them, from 1908 to 1911, was photographer S. J. Culbertson whose rented rooms included his studio. From 1911 to 1914, the residence served as the first home of the Helena Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), offering safe housing for working women, female travelers, and young girls from rural homes attending high school. The YWCA also ran a lunchroom on the premises, well patronized by courthouse employees. By the 1920s, Mrs. T. J. Walker’s boarding house advertised Mrs. Baker’s “Good Home Cooking,” and by 1940, there were four apartments; Marguerite Mayer was the owner/landlady. The home today retains its mansard roof, molded cornices, and ornate brackets and eaves, grandly symbolizing the importance of Courthouse Square and Helena’s significant role as territorial capital.
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