A building frenzy arrived in Hamilton after 1907 as the Bitterroot apple boom boosted the town’s population to three thousand. Downtown gained several architect-designed buildings, identifiable by their high-fire brick, leaded-glass transoms, and ornamental parapets. Many other respectable contractor-designed buildings filled the lots in between. In 1908, grocery store owner Lloyd Reimel hired contractor Eric Erickson to build this cast concrete block commercial building. Made with a hand-operated press, cast concrete block was unheard of in 1900. By 1906, however, more than a thousand companies nationally manufactured the durable material, providing an inexpensive alternative to cut stone. Upon completion, Lloyd sold the building to Fred Grill who operated a grocery store here until 1911. That year, John C. Wagner and wife Emma purchased the building for their furniture store and undertaking business; they lived in the second-floor rooms until 1915. John Dowling bought the Wagner’s undertaking business in 1917, operating in this location until 1926. During the 1930s, the store held automotive businesses, and then the Turf Buffet from 1939 to 1947. Ronald and Elsie Owen purchased the building in 1955. As of 2026, it remains in their family ownership.
]]>Young physician Dr. George McGrath moved to Hamilton from Ontario, Canada, in 1893 to provide health care for Marcus Daly’s family and his Bitterroot Stock Farm and Riverside mansion staff. He married Louise Huffman in 1895 and later became a family doctor to generations of Hamiltonians. An enthusiastic supporter of Hamilton’s welfare, Dr. McGrath helped establish Hamilton’s first hospital and later the Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital in 1931. He owned the Bitter Root Drug Store for decades, served as a Ravalli County Bank director for thirty years, and spearheaded efforts to revive the defunct Ravalli County Fair in 1937. In 1910, the McGraths hired contractors to build this distinctive residence and carriage barn. The home’s side-gable roof and full front porch reflect the Craftsman style, while the emerging Colonial Revival style is embodied in the flared eaves, matching dormers, and multi-paned upper window sashes. The carriage barn, which initially held the doctor’s 1909 Maxwell Runabout (an early automobile), also illustrates the Colonial Revival style influence. Dr. McGrath died in 1939, and Louise remained in residence until her death in 1946.
]]>Hamilton experienced a building boom in the mid-1930s as federal work relief and affordable housing programs started to ease economic stagnation during the Great Depression. Programs included low-interest loans from the Federal Housing Administration, which promoted small cottage homes like this one to working-class families. The smooth stucco walls, symmetrical gabled dormers, and shingled gable ends reflect the English cottage aesthetic. Civilian Conservation Corps carpenter Axel R. Larson and wife Martha built the house in 1935 but never lived in it. They moved to Missoula and sold the home to auto mechanic Walter “Bud” Wilson and his wife Pearl. Bud worked at the Ford dealership and later repaired machinery for Ravalli County. Pearl stayed home to raise their son Earl and was active with the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Ladies Guild. Earl graduated from Montana State University in civil engineering in 1952 and later worked to improve roads and drainage in Glacier, Yellowstone, and Mount Ranier national parks. Bud died in 1971 and Pearl remained in residence until she died in 1978.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>As extractive industries developed in remote locations across Montana in the late 1800s, employers built company towns for their workers. Between 1891 and 1905, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company (ACM) developed Hamilton to supply timber to the mines. Company carpenters constructed small cottages for lumber mill workers in the Riverview Addition and substantial residences for managers in the Southside Addition, including this Queen Anne Free Classic style home. Its hipped roof with projecting gable ends displays a typical Queen Anne style roof form, while the eave returns and dentil (toothlike) molding in the frieze reflect the Classical style. Ontario natives William J. and Sarah D. Vrooman lived here from 1896 to 1898 when William managed the ACM store’s dry goods department. Wiltia T. Tyler, ACM store meat department manager, lived here from 1902 to 1909 with his family. Valley ranchers George and Mary Downing purchased the home in 1909. They also built the house next door at number 420 in 1915, where their son Lewis and family lived for many years.
]]>Ranchers George and Mary Downing purchased both the house next door and this lot in 1909. In 1915, the Downings moved existing buildings onto the empty lot and constructed this vernacular (builder-designed) home. The asymmetrical façade and decorative porch columns are indicative of the Queen Anne style, while the low-pitched hipped roof and overhanging eaves reflect the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie style. The builder adapted the buildings, a common practice to save money, while delivering the “modern” aesthetic the Downings desired. By 1920, the Downing’s son Lewis and his wife Florence had moved into the home. Lewis, a recent pharmacy school graduate, opened Downing Drug Store in 1917. Although the name changed over the years, the pharmacy remained a Hamilton institution for the next eighty years. The Downings raised their two children, Elizabeth and Bill, here. Florence worked as a nurse in Hamilton’s first hospital and was active in the Montana Nurses Association. When she died in 1920, the local chapter of the Montana Nurses Association named a scholarship in her honor. Lewis remained in residence. He died in 1981 at age ninety-three.
]]>An unusual two-story angled bay ornaments the façade of this modified cross-gable home. Built circa 1900, the “Free Classic” style residence features Queen Anne characteristics including a large wraparound porch, turned balustrade, bay windows, and complicated roofline. Daniel Bean arrived in Hamilton in 1895 and moved with wife Mary and their family into this apple orchard-bordered property a few years later. The home still occupied an entire block in 1944. Ill-gotten gains perhaps paid for the gracious residence. Bean was a lumberman associated with copper king Marcus Daly’s massive logging operations, and in 1901 the government charged him and several other defendants with stealing publicly owned timber. By 1899, Bitterroot sawmills, including ones owned by Bean, collectively cut 100 million feet of logs into lumber annually, most of which was destined for Daly’s copper mines and smelter. Obtaining General Land Office permits for logging on public lands was easy, maybe especially so for Bean, whose wife’s uncle served as commissioner of that agency. Nevertheless, many lumbermen cut timber beyond their permits’ limits. In 1907 Bean and his co-defendants--including the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, James Haggin, and others--agreed to pay the U.S. government “$156,000 for timber illegally cut” (approximately $32 million in 2023 dollars). The Ravalli Republic newspaper reported that this was the largest timber trespass settlement to date. Daniel Bean died in 1910. By 1917, Casper Oertli, who operated a threshing outfit, lived here with wife Mary, three children, and Mary’s mother.
]]>Charles M. Crutchfield moved to Hamilton in 1895 to work as Marcus Daly’s attorney. In 1896, his young family moved into this elegant Queen Anne style house. The home’s distinctive features include a gracious wraparound porch with carved porch apron and two-story cutaway bay with decorative panels. After Daly’s death, Charles continued work for the Anaconda Company, became vice president of the Ravalli County Bank, and opened his own law office. He also built a Main Street business block. Charles served in Montana’s first, second, sixth, and eleventh legislative sessions and was twice considered a possible Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. Liver disease cut short his political pursuits and ended his life at forty-eight, leaving wife Lena to raise their five children. Lena hosted events for the Episcopal Church, was a charter member of the Hamilton Hospital Guild, served as a trustee for the school board, and achieved the status of Matron in the Masonic Order of the Eastern Star. She remained in residence with her two daughters until she died in 1958.
]]>Built in the Streamlined Moderne style, the Pine Apartments’ smooth stucco walls and horizontal lines demonstrate a Depression-era need for efficiency. The building’s modern aesthetic also reflects an optimism that American innovation and ingenuity could drive the country’s economic recovery. In 1936, Leland Wells started construction on the apartments, hoping to attract Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) employees. The project struggled financially, and Ravalli County Bank assumed ownership until businessman Howard Bates completed construction in 1937. Bates operated a Hamilton coal and fuel business and contracted on New Deal projects, which were designed to create jobs and modernize infrastructure. RML expanded into a national vaccine factory during World War II, creating additional economic opportunities in Hamilton. Young professionals, particularly newlyweds, established their first households in the Pine Apartments. Attorney Claude Johnson and wife Lucy purchased the building in 1947 and lived in one of the apartments. Claude, a World War II veteran, served in various community organizations. Lucy golfed, hiked, and participated in Hamilton civic life. Bernatz Investment Company purchased the building in 1952 and continued to offer stylish, modern housing to professional men and women.
]]>Railroad contractor Michael Tobin purchased this modified Craftsman style house from Valley Mercantile in 1910. The bungalow has undergone substantial changes including the addition of front and back shed-roof dormers. In 1911, Forbes and Anna Buchannan purchased the home for $3,000 (approximately $211,000 in 2022 dollars). Forbes—an experienced blacksmith—moved to the Bitter Root Valley in 1904 with first wife Mary to run mining claims for the Montana-Coeur d’Alene Company. Mary soon died, and Forbes married Anna Strong, a woman twenty years his junior. Before long, Forbes operated “the largest and best equipped machine, blacksmith, and wagon making shops in the Bitter Root valley.” By 1915, Forbes had lost the election for sheriff, fallen delinquent on property taxes, and Anna had died from sepsis following an illegal abortion. Forbes went to mine in Kellogg, Idaho, leaving his two young children in Hamilton for five years. In 1915, the MacRae Brothers Corporation, local stock growers, bought the home. The brothers leased the property until 1936, then sold to Edward Erikson, a plant breeder for Associated Seed Growers, and wife Jessie.
]]>Perry Tompkins, co-owner of The Owl Saloon, built this Eclectic style house in 1910. By wife Elia’s account, Perry soon turned violent; they moved out and divorced. Norwegian farmer Anton Johnson and family lived here two years before renting to Roy Uhl. Roy managed Valley Mercantile’s clothing store and the Lucas Opera House, where he introduced Hamiltonians to early forms of moving pictures with sound. In September 1918 he decided to focus on the film business full time, but weeks later he died of influenza at twenty-seven, a victim of the worldwide pandemic. Paul and Anna Scholz bought the home in 1919. Paul and his daughter Frances worked at the train depot until rheumatism confined Paul to bed the following winter. On his fifty-first birthday, he celebrated with family and died later that evening. Anna remained in residence for fourteen more years. In 1939, Frances sold the house to Albert and Lelia Nickel. Albert ran Nickel’s Plumbing, Heating, and Appliance and participated in the Lions Club. The Nickels raised Lelia’s brother’s children Roxie and Edwin Milburn after their mother moved to Spokane.
]]>In 1935, James and Helen (Iten) Thompson built the log home next door. The following year, they purchased this lot from their neighbor to the north, Sophie Roberts, who owned a successful downtown bookstore. Here the Thompsons built a second Minimal Traditional house that mirrored their first home almost exactly except for material. Both houses have exposed rafter tails and multi-paned windows (Craftsman style elements) and Colonial Revival door hoods. The Thompsons lived in this stucco and wood home, renting out the log house. James worked in the grocery business until 1943. In 1942, he helped found the Hamilton Elks Lodge and took the position as chief steward for the Elks Club in 1943. The couple had seven children, but three of them died at birth. Later, son William, a seasonal firefighter, died at twenty-three in the 1962 Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness wildfire. As the fire came under control, William sat down to rest, only to be killed by a boulder that rolled down the hill and hit him.
]]>In 1910, George K. Dick—Ravalli County Bank assistant clerk—built this Queen Anne Free Classic style home, which the Ravalli Republic called “one of the best residence properties in Hamilton.” Characteristic features include the projecting gable end, corner boards, and cutaway bay window. Local undertaker John C. Wagner purchased the home in 1915. He soon sold it and his business to John W. Dowling Jr., founder of the Dowling Funeral Home that served Hamilton residents for over a century. An avid sportsman, John led the Hamilton Sportsmen’s Club; his wife Mabel could reportedly “beat [most men] a city block at deer hunting.” In 1926, Dowling bought Marcus Daly’s former in-town mansion and later the Bitter Root Valley Irrigation office to function as his residence and funeral home. John G. Howe, touted as one of the “most successful creamery operators in the west,” purchased the residence in 1927. He managed the Bitter Root Ravalli Dairy Products Company until 1933 when he resigned to pursue his twenty-year dream of opening his own creamery. Howe’s Creamery churned out award-winning cheese, butter, and ice cream for forty-nine years.
]]>Hamilton Flour & Cereal Mill Co. co-owner Charles F. Pride and wife Rosetha commissioned this imposing Queen Anne Free Classic style home in 1913. The steeply pitched side gable roof and large projecting gabled dormer are stylistic hallmarks. The boxed front porch with skillfully mitered clapboard corners remains a distinctive original feature. After the Hamilton flour mill burned in 1917, the Prides sold the home to Dr. George A. and Ina Gordon. George, a well-respected physician, also served terms as county coroner and health officer. Ina raised three children and helped found the Hamilton Women’s Club. After George died in 1941, Ina became a sorority house mother in Bozeman. She later became head resident of Corbin Hall at Montana State University where she worked until 1951. When Ina left for Bozeman, son George Jr. and his family took over the home. During World War II, George Jr. enlisted in the U.S. Navy and worked at the U.S. naval shipyards near Seattle until 1945. After the war, George worked as a clerk at Rocky Mountain Lab, remaining in residence into the 1960s.
]]>Swedish immigrant Louis Peterson—regarded as one of Hamilton’s foremost businessmen and developers—built this Vernacular style cottage circa 1896, living here until his death in 1937. The house likely began as a gable front and wing cottage, but over the years Louis made multiple improvements, adding four gabled additions and an open porch with Doric columns. He owned the Hotel Hamilton, Scandia Saloon, ice houses, and co-owned the European Hotel with twin brother Andrew. Louis served on the First National Bank board and spent nearly two decades as an alderman. He worked to improve public spaces and fought liquor restrictions—a defining issue in local politics. When Ravalli became Montana’s first dry county in 1904, Louis and other saloon owners tested the law’s effectiveness. Once arrested and tried, they immediately appealed to higher courts. By November 1905, The Western News claimed prohibition had cost the county over $25,000, and voters soon repealed the law. Nevertheless, the city forced Louis and other saloon owners to consolidate twelve saloons to five in 1914, which decreased city revenue and forced cuts to the police.
]]>During Hamilton’s “Big Ditch” era, investors purchased the ninety-acre Pine Grove addition. Carpenter Lester Smith built this Craftsman style home in 1910. Distinctive elements include a flared hipped roof, integrated porch, tapered brick chimney, and varying-width clapboard siding. Lester and wife Ada lived here briefly, followed by Ada’s sister Bessie Hoagland and husband Frank. Frank owned The Hub clothing store and was active in the chamber of commerce, fire department, hospital association, Masonic Lodge, Republican Party, and Presbyterian Church. He was an avid outdoorsman and breeder of prize-winning poultry. Bessie volunteered for their church’s ladies aid society and the Hamilton Woman’s Club. Amid a stagnant economy, Frank liquidated his business in 1923 and the family moved to California. Subsequent homeowners Godfrey and Florence Hagens fought construction of the Rocky Mountain Laboratory claiming infected lab ticks would threaten Hamilton residents’ health and lower property values. Their efforts failed and the laboratory opened in 1928. A decade later, Bitterroot National Forest Supervisor Guy Brandborg and wife Edna purchased the house. A conservation advocate, Guy was instrumental in the push for sustainable forest management practices.
]]>Hamilton experienced a building boom after 1905 as irrigation water flowed and orchards bloomed on the benchlands between Missoula and Stevensville. Mary Toole, widow of Bitter Root Development Company President William R. Toole, built this Queen Anne “Free Classic” style home as a rental property in 1910. The style, popular after 1890, combined both Victorian and Classical-era motifs. The home’s cross-gable roof and carved eave brackets represent the Queen Anne style, while the pedimented porch entry, smooth porch columns, and cornice returns evoke the Classical style. Warham M. Noble, purchasing agent for the Bitter Root Valley Irrigation Company, lived here with his family from 1910 to 1912. Isaac N. Welk, Hamilton Flour and Cereal Mill manager, rented the home from 1914 until 1916 when Mary Toole and her sons George and Frank relocated here from South Eighth Street. After George and Frank were drafted into World War I, Mary left Hamilton, selling the house to department store owners William and Anna Westergren in 1919. The Westergrens remained in residence until 1935.
]]>In the late 1890s, large, elegant homes built for Hamilton’s professional class filled the blocks closest to Main Street. With construction of the Big Ditch irrigation project after 1905, landowners built modest-size homes for workers on lots further south, closer to the Northern Pacific tracks. Louis J. and Annie Watson purchased this lot in 1903 for $100. Louis managed the Anaconda Mining Company store’s hardware department. Annie, a dressmaker, stayed home with their children, Lewis and Dorothy. In 1907, Louis became the purchasing agent for the Bitterroot District Irrigation Company, and in 1909, the couple hired carpenters to build this well-preserved vernacular style residence, possibly as an investment property. Though the simple, square-plan home lacks ornamentation, the clipped-gable roof offers a charming variation on the ubiquitous gable-roof form. The Watsons tried to sell the home in January 1910 but ended up living here from 1910 to 1915. In 1915, they moved to Butte and leased the house for the next twenty-five years. In 1941, Annie (a widow) moved back to the home, where she lived until her death in 1944.
]]>Neighbors were few when Frank R. Dudley acquired this property in 1909. Dudley, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company’s mercantile department manager, added this charming bungalow to the lot circa 1910. The lots next door and across the street were vacant in 1914, and the home on its prominent corner served as a prime rental as other residences began to fill in the block. An early example of the bungalow style promoted in California, the house features a centered cross-gable roof, multi-paned windows, wide overhanging eaves with exposed rafter tails, and the perfect symmetry that is characteristic of the style. Its low siting, nestled into the landscape, also follows the stylistic ideal. Bungalows appeared early in the Bitterroot valley, perhaps due to the “apple boom” and influence of California growers who settled here. Later additions have not altered the home’s excellent integrity. A post-1944 addition—sensitive to the original style—expanded the back and the front porch was enclosed. Owners also added a compatible gable-roof outbuilding in the 1990s. Tucked into a tree-lined corner, the historic residence illustrates the Southside’s post-1910 era of development.
]]>For centuries, the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons have offered their members support, connections, and community. These benefits spurred Montana settlers to charter Masonic lodges and Orders of the Eastern Star. Ionic Lodge No. 38 (1889), and Leona Lodge No. 31 (1903), launched efforts to build a permanent home in Hamilton in February 1909. Members hired Missoula architects John and Josephine Kennedy to draw plans for a typical brick temple with two, first-floor commercial stores and lodge rooms upstairs. Most temples valued the secrecy a windowless, second-floor main lodge room offered. After fundraising stalled, the project languished until 1915 when members hired local architect Bernhard G. Peterson to redesign the building. Peterson’s imposing Neoclassical Revival style design featured grand Ionic columns, tall arched windows, and a pedimented portico. Instead of first-floor commercial space, he specified an unusual full-height, first-floor lodge room with a balcony along the east wall, tamarack wood paneling, and small arched windows. A large crowd of western Montana members officially dedicated the building on September 7, 1916. As of 2021, both lodges continued to use the building for its intended purpose.
]]>The Anaconda Copper Mining Company (ACM) built this home circa 1897 as a company house. Its cross-gabled roof, three-part windows with stained-glass border panes, and turned porch posts mark it as a classic Queen Anne style cottage. The first known residents were William and Nellie Fisk in 1903. William Fisk was manager of the Valley Mercantile—the ACM company store—and Nellie stayed home with their children Roy and Page. In 1905, William became manager of the Hamilton Hotel, where the Fisks eventually moved after 1915. Various families, often associated with the Valley Mercantile or the Bitterroot Stock Farm, rented the home over the next twenty years. In 1936, widow Christina Kippen purchased the home from the Stock Farm and moved here with her sons from the family ranch. Her husband Marcus Kippen had been a surveyor at the Stock Farm for forty years. Christina was a fifty-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star and active with the Hamilton Presbyterian Church’s Ladies Aid Society. Among other family activities and social gatherings, her home was the scene of many card parties.
]]>Most of Marcus Daly’s Bitter Root Stock Farm managers were men who lived in fine family homes in the Southside Addition along Fourth and Fifth streets. Unmarried, professional female employees typically lived with relatives or at a boardinghouse. Laura B. Jones was a notable exception. Jones started her business career as a bookkeeper at Valley Mercantile in the 1910s. She became secretary at the Bitter Root Stock Farm office in 1918, and in 1923 she purchased this Queen Anne style cottage from the Stock Farm. The home consists of two separate buildings moved from the Stock Farm circa 1909 and joined together on three lots. In addition to managing Stock Farm affairs, Jones was a partner in the Security Abstract and Title Company and co-founded the Hamilton Business and Professional Women’s Club. In 1930, when she was fifty-one, she married Herbert E. Jones, a widowed stenographer and owner of the View Acres nursery. He died suddenly in 1932, but Laura kept View Acres and her Stock Farm position until she retired in 1948. She remained in residence until her death in 1967.
]]>Congress created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and FHA loans in 1934—at the height of the Great Depression—to finance and produce small homes that the average working American could afford. In addition to offering insured long-term, low-interest mortgages, the FHA also published its first “Principles of Planning Small Houses” bulletin in 1936. Private house-plan publishers jumped on board, and by 1949 more than seven million Minimal Traditional style homes like this one were built across the United States. Sophye Millette hired contractor John Peterson to build this tasteful home in 1939. The exterior brick chimney (marked with her last initial) and six-over-six-light wood windows are stylistic hallmarks. Millette, widowed at age twenty-seven, had raised her son Louis, Jr. at her parents’ house nearby and was chief operator at Mountain States Telephone by 1930. While many professional women held jobs in nursing and teaching, telephone operators also made a living wage. In 1939, Millette made $1,000 a year, the same amount as her brother Andrew, a laborer at Montana Power and her housemate throughout the 1940s. She remained in residence until 1964.
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