Barry O’Leary and Honora Shea both emigrated from County Cork, Ireland, he in 1898 and she in 1901. They met in Butte and married at St. Mary’s Church in 1906. By 1909 they had moved into this front-gable home half a block from the Gagnon Mine. Here, Honora raised four boys, who undoubtedly joined the neighborhood children playing at the mine dump. Barry worked forty-eight years for the Anaconda Company, first as a miner, then as an oiler, and then as a stationary engineer. He was also a long-standing city council member, first elected in 1932, and a four-term mayor (1941-1949). His political advertisements touted his fiscal conservatism and commitment to improving the city. The O’Learys were devout Catholics. Barry was also an Irish nationalist and member of the semi-secret Robert Emmett Literary Society, a revolutionary organization committed to achieving an independent Irish Republic by force of arms. The O’Learys built an addition onto the house in 1935, where they remained in residence until their deaths, Honora’s at eighty-one in 1965 and Barry’s at ninety-three in 1970.
]]>By the time workers built this hipped roof cottage circa 1888, a hodgepodge of log cabins and wood-frame miners' cottages dotted the hill above the still developing Original and Colorado mineyards. During the next twenty years the area exploded with industrial and residential development. By 1891, miners filled the new brick boardinghouse across the street. Starting in 1892, steam engines pulling heavily loaded rail cars roared by at all hours on the bank just north of the house. By 1902, the view from the front porch included the towering steel Original Mine headframe, numerous smokestacks, and dozens of associated mine yard buildings. Irish immigrant John Ryan and wife Elizabeth purchased this home in 1899, and by 1900 the two-bedroom house teemed with their seven children. An eighth child arrived in 1902, and John died from kidney disease in 1909. Elizabeth continued to raise the younger children while her older children went to work in the mines and nearby businesses. After she died in 1937, her daughter Virginia and husband John Crotty remained in residence until the mid-1950s.
]]>Elizabeth McGuire moved to Montana Territory circa 1882, divorced her husband, and homesteaded in the Deer Lodge valley with two young sons. She built this two-story Italianate style rooming house circa 1893 on land she acquired from a neighboring rancher. Having worked at her father’s boarding house in Indiana, Elizabeth requested closets for all seven rooms. Her contractor protested saying closets were unfashionable, but she demanded the house be built for convenience, not style. She and sons lived here and next door at No. 112, while renting rooms to bachelors and married couples. Elizabeth, an intrepid, strong-willed woman, battled her contractor in court and once locked tenants out for several hours. In the 1920s, Elizabeth took in Euphemia Vautor, an elderly neighbor. Under Elizabeth’s care, Euphemia willed her nearly $10,000. After Euphemia died, her sister fought the will in court, and a judge ruled that Elizabeth had exerted “undue influence” on Euphemia’s “weakened mind.” Elizabeth died in 1927, and son Robert continued to rent out the house. Uuno Sahinen, State Geologist for Montana Bureau of Mines, and wife Margaret were in residence from 1945 to 1971.
]]>By 1890, Butte boasted 10,723 inhabitants, more than eighty operating mines, and an extensive electric streetcar (trolley) system. As demand for copper soared and the population tripled over the next decade, multifamily residences and apartment buildings filled most vacant lots, especially in the west- and south-lying neighborhoods. Jesse Wathey, superintendent of the Butte Consolidated Street Railway, commissioned this classic brick duplex in 1890. Colored multipaned windows in the living room, a second-story porch, and a decorative parapet (roofline) added charm to the middle-class, two-bedroom units. Jesse and his family lived in a small house nearby on an adjoining lot facing Porphyry Street. They rented the apartments to an ever-changing array of skilled mine workers and young professionals. Jewish immigrants Simon and Rachael Witofsky purchased the building by 1913. Simon operated the Butte Trunk Manufacturing Company, and Rachael raised their children and managed tenants. When the couple divorced in 1916, Rachael gained full ownership and continued living in No. 326, renting out rooms until 1922. Her son Mendal and family lived next door in No. 328 from 1923 to 1931.
]]>Tucked away on the steep slope of Nanny Goat Hill, this 1899 Queen Anne style home suffered years of neglect until the Butte Historic Trust rescued it from collapse in 2021. Rehabilitation efforts secured the foundation, restored the brick and shingle siding, and replaced the missing turned posts, scrolled brackets, and spindlework frieze on the distinctive front porch. Many of the home’s early occupants reflected the neighborhood’s thriving Irish population. Police chief William Dawson, his wife Nellie, and their children lived here from 1899 to 1904. Irish widow Mary Murphy, her four children, and boarders lived here from 1907 to 1913, followed by Hennessey’s Department store manager James Murphy and wife Agnes from 1913 to 1919. Irish immigrants and newlyweds Jeremiah “Jerry” and Mary Egan purchased the home in 1919. Jerry, a mine shift boss, fell ill in 1924 and died of lung disease at age forty-three in 1926. Mary persevered, raising her young sons on her own and renting rooms to make ends meet. Both sons earned degrees in engineering and Mary remained here until she died in 1966.
]]>Henry Hubert Jr., druggist at Henry’s Pharmacy on the northeast corner of Granite and Alabama, built this handsome, five-room Craftsman style bungalow in 1913. Born in Switzerland, Henry immigrated to Montana with his family in 1891 around age twelve. In 1911, while living directly across Western Avenue, he lost his twenty-five-year-old wife to rheumatic fever. On this adjacent corner lot, Henry found a fresh start with wife Rose. They raised daughters Bernice and May Rose and nurtured their love of gardening. Floral enthusiasts could see Rose’s prize-winning dahlias and delphiniums at local exhibitions or visit her home during the Butte Garden Club’s annual tours. Rose frequently hosted the Garden and Contract (Bridge) clubs. Teenage Bernice also hosted friends for bridge, dancing, and midnight meals. In 1936, tragedy struck when the revolver Henry always carried to protect the day’s receipts accidentally discharged, fatally wounding him. In spring 1945, Rose threw one final party with eighty guests for Bernice’s engagement. By summer, both daughters lived with their husbands and Rose had moved to a new home on North Alabama.
]]>Built by 1889, this six-room, hipped-roof cottage was primarily home to miners and their families. Located behind the Mountain Con Mine, the house likely shook as railcars loaded with ore passed just to the south. The mine operated twenty-four hours a day, so the sound of hoist engines and shift whistles were ever present. For the families who made this their home, the mine also resonated in other ways. In addition to being called “The Richest Hill on Earth,” Butte was also known as the “City of Widows and Orphans” because mining was such dangerous work. Owner John Toward died at age fifty-nine of miner’s consumption in 1905, leaving wife Caroline and four children ages twenty-three, twenty-one, nineteen, and sixteen. His own father Richard had died in 1898 at age forty-nine. Caroline continued in residence until 1917. In 1910, her grown children lived with her, likely contributing wages earned as a stenographer, messenger, and miner to help support the family. Irish Catholic miner Patrick Dennehy and wife Catherine purchased the home by 1927. They raised six children here, and Catherine remained in residence into the 1960s.
]]>In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia. Formally incorporated in 1915, the Girl Scouts grew rapidly, with troop leaders across the United States embracing its mission of “home-making, health-getting and citizenship.” In Butte, in the 1920s, Girl Scouts camped, hiked, and swam and learned knot tying, archery, first aid, and semaphore signaling. They also practiced folk-dancing, handcrafts, and the proper way to make a bed. In 1923, philanthropist Harriet Armstrong donated seventy-three acres of land bordering the Deerlodge National Forest to the Butte Girl Scout Council. Girl Scouts began camping on the property in 1924. In 1925, the Council installed tennis courts and a swimming pool. Construction of the Rustic-style Castle Rock Lodge began in 1927. Built with local logs and cobblestones, the lodge features a sturdy stone foundation, chimney, and pergola. Inside, it holds a dining room, kitchen, assembly hall, and a large sleeping loft. Log walls, two split-log staircases, peeled log rafters, and a cobblestone fireplace brings the natural world into the lodge. Over time, the Girl Scouts modernized and expanded the lodge, adding indoor plumbing in 1933 and a dining hall in 1958. Though ownership briefly transferred to the Butte Lions Club in 1968, the Girl Scouts continued to camp here and regained title in 1985. Over time, the Girl Scouts’ mission evolved to helping girls “discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges,” but Castle Rock Lodge remained a gathering place. It still stands as a “lasting monument to Butte and Montana girlhood,” just as its founders intended.
]]>Real estate broker Edward G. Smith and wife Anna built this Queen Anne Style cottage in 1896 for $2,000. Edward’s employer—builder and real estate developer Charles Passmore—provided the plans and construction. After an 1889 fire devastated Butte’s commercial and residential core, the city passed its first ordinance mandating brick and stone construction. Passmore, who had just arrived in Butte, cashed in by building dozens of small yet fashionable brick-veneered cottages and offering affordable installment payment plans. This home’s shingled and flared gable end, arched windows, and machine-made ornamentation reflect upscale Queen Anne style embellishments. After the Smiths moved out in 1903, other occupants included a lawyer, cigar store owner, and a doctor. By 1911, the home rented for $40 per month. Irish miner Michael “Mickey” Duggan, wife Julia, and six children filled the home to capacity between 1920 and 1923, and after they left, a steady stream of laborers followed. Anaconda Company shift boss Samuel Sibley and wife Amelia purchased the home in 1930, sharing it with their two grown daughters. The Sibleys remained in residence until their daughter Emily married in 1942.
]]>By 1890, copper mining boomed in Butte, attracting droves of new workers and real estate speculators. That year, the Curtis and Majors real estate firm replaced a wood-frame dwelling on this lot with a narrow one-story bay-fronted brick residence. Undertaker and music store owner Eugene H. Sherman purchased the home as an investment in 1891 for $4,500. After the Silver Panic of 1893 (a nationwide economic depression), he sold the home in 1895 to widow Mary Crangle for just $2,500. Combination Mine blacksmith Alexander Gray and his wife Winnifred purchased the home in 1904, and in 1908 they added the second story. Sadly, Alexander fell victim to tuberculosis in 1912, joining the ranks of 675 Butte mine workers claimed by respiratory disease between 1907 and 1913. Winnifred remained in residence and raised children “Mose” Alex Jr., Lucy, and Walter, while renting rooms to miners. Mose later worked as an electrician and remained at home. After Winnifred died in 1944, Mose lived downstairs with male boarders and Lucy, recently widowed, lived upstairs with her son Alec and women boarders. Both siblings died in 1971.
]]>Miner Patrick Toomey and wife Frances purchased this side-gabled Craftsman style bungalow when it was new in 1907. The home originally featured wood-shingle siding, overhanging eaves with exposed rafter ends, and a left-side front porch with square columns. The Toomeys lived here with Frances’s children from her first marriage and Patrick’s brother Joseph. Mining accidents and lung disease often devastated Butte families. Frances had married her first husband John Lowney in 1893 when she was sixteen. He died in a mine accident in 1903, leaving her at age twenty-six with four children. She married Patrick in 1906 and they had one son Dennis before Patrick died of tuberculosis in February 1915. Frances married Henry Strickling in November. They added three children to the family before moving to British Columbia in 1919. Miner Jack F. Parker and his wife Anna moved to the home in 1920. They raised three daughters and were devoted members of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. Their daughter Mary Claire, who was editor of the Butte Girls Central High School newspaper, won the national Catholic School Press Writing Contest in 1940.
]]>Contractors built this well-preserved cottage in 1897, long before the imposing 152-foot-tall Anselmo Mine headframe rose on the hillside to the north in 1936. Piano store owner William “Will” C. Orton and his wife Mildred (a pianist) purchased the home when it was new in 1897. The home’s cutaway front bay, decorative gable ends, and spindlework porch posts are hallmarks of the Queen Anne style. Will and his five brothers, all musicians, opened the Orton Bros. Music Company in 1886. Will expanded their company statewide, becoming a fixture Montana family business until 1960. Music was also important to the home’s second owner, Finis Matson, who purchased the home in 1911. Finis, an automobile electrician, played drums and led the local Jazz Babies Orchestra. He was a member of Summit Valley Lodge 123, White Shrine, the Butte Pioneers Club, and a charter member of the Butte Kiwanis Club. He married schoolteacher Lulu Atkins in 1914 and they raised three daughters here. Lulu died in 1971, and Finis remained in residence until he died in 1975.
]]>Prominent Butte architect Henry M. Patterson designed this attractive two-flat apartment building in 1899. Patterson’s commissions included numerous homes and business blocks for Butte’s wealthiest citizens. His design for this multi-family building reflects his care in making it fit harmoniously among the ornately decorated single-family homes on both sides of the street. Intended for middle-class tenants, the building features private entrances, distinctive oval windows, a central curved bay, and an intricate corbelled (stepped) parapet. Inside, the apartments offered similar amenities to the well-appointed homes nearby, including high ceilings, hardwood floors, spindlework stair railings, and sitting rooms in the master bedrooms. Various skilled professionals and business owners rented the units, sometimes subletting bedrooms to boarders. Early tenants included a stockbroker and his family, a telegraph operator, a newspaper reporter, and a mine manager. Drugstore owner Howard Rockefeller of Paxson & Rockefeller Drugs lived at No. 809 from 1910 to 1913 with his wife Pearl, son Howard Jr., and housemaid Lena Lindquist. Edwin S. Bartlett, president of the Sheepshearers’ Union of North America, lived with his family at No. 811 in 1918.
]]>Beloved Republican politician and Butte postmaster George Irvin and his wife Bettie purchased this brick four-square cottage in 1890. The home, built before 1884, retains its original compact footprint; however, it originally featured a front porch with tapered wood columns. George arrived in present-day Montana in 1863, having crossed Wyoming into the Gallatin Valley with John Bozeman. George served as Silver Bow County’s first sheriff from 1881 to 1889, U.S. marshall from 1889 to 1893, U.S. commissioner of mineral lands from 1893 until 1898, and Butte’s postmaster from 1898 until 1907. Patrick and Annie Lyden purchased the home in 1906. Patrick was a Butte police officer and Annie raised their four children here. After Patrick died in 1920, daughters Kate and Alice remained in the home. In 1937, Kate, a Butte High School math teacher, toured China, Japan, and the Philippines. On her trip, she witnessed Japanese forces attack China in the Battle of Shanghai. The battle—sometimes called the beginning of World War II—brought heavy destruction and led to Japanese capture. Kate returned home safely and remained in residence until her death in 1985.
]]>Fish-scale shingles, decorative carved trim in the gable end, and a bay window with leaded glass windows define this well-preserved Queen Anne style cottage. Carpenters built hundreds of cottages like this in the early 1900s as copper mining in Butte grew rapidly and demand for housing soared. The Otto Stoelker Engineering firm constructed this home and its near twin next door in 1908 at a cost of $2,500 each. Anaconda Company blacksmith George Bettenson and wife Lillian had bought the home by 1909. They shared the residence with their married son Ray (also a blacksmith) and daughter-in-law Gertrude. In 1916, they added an expensive improvement—a garage that cost $6,500. Ray and Gertrude moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1920, where Ray took a job as superintendent of employment at the Northwest Bridge and Iron Company. Lillian died in 1930. The next year, George rented out the house to Hennessey's department store salesman John R. McGregor and his wife Rose. In 1936, the McGregors purchased the home and also opened the McGregor Dry Goods Store, which they operated until 1956.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>Homeowners and investment companies built almost fifty homes on Butte’s “smoke-free” northwest side in 1905. While wealthier professionals developed the more desirable south-facing lots, the north-facing lots closest to the Butte, Anaconda, and Pacific Railroad tracks offered workers a low-cost avenue to homeownership. Circa 1905, the Thompson Investment Company built this four-room Queen Anne cottage for just $800, and Parrot Mine blacksmith helper Frank H. Davies purchased it in 1906. Frank sold the home to John J. and Margaret Foley by 1911. John worked as Clerk of the District Court, and Margaret stayed home with sons John, Jr. and Francis. In 1915, tragedy struck when Margaret died from sepsis, and then in 1917, five-year-old Francis died from a heart infection. John and John, Jr. moved to California, and Anaconda Company hoist engineer William A. Graham and his wife Zita purchased the house in 1920. They raised their only child Betty here. After high school, Betty worked at the Montana Hardware Company and later spent forty-one years as a secretary at the Anaconda Company. She remained in residence until the early 2000s.
]]>The Cole family moved to Butte in 1881 where William G. Cole worked as the chief mechanical engineer at Marcus Daly’s Anaconda mine. By 1884, the Coles lived next door at 305, and William soon purchased the two early 1880s houses on this lot as rental properties. The family continued living next door until William died in 1899. By 1900, his widow Annie and son Harry had moved to 307. Harry became a master machinist, and in 1907, he married Butte native Theresa Lienemann. In 1915, they removed the small Vernacular (builder-designed) house at the front of the lot and hired carpenter Hugh Johnston to build this four-bedroom Craftsman style bungalow for $3,000. The home’s low-slung side-gable roof, shingled porch and dormer walls, and tapered porch columns are distinctive stylistic hallmarks. Harry repaired and installed machinery for forty-seven years at the Anaconda Company. Theresa took care of the home, served as an election judge, and was a member of St. Patrick’s Church. They remained in residence until they died, just two months apart, in 1965.
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