Gold strikes at Bannack and Alder Gulch brought Irish immigrant Peter Whaley to Montana in the 1860s. Whaley’s wife and nine children shared his adventures, including his service as the first agent on the Flathead Reservation, until the family settled here on a desert land claim in 1877. The house, built circa 1885, survives as an outstanding example of vernacular frontier architecture. Weatherboard siding conceals a massive complicated understructure of square-hewn logs. Vergeboards with a hand-carved clover motif, tall pedimented windows, and porches (originally adorned with chamfered columns and spool-like ornamentation) reveal frontier elegance achieved through resourceful adaptation of crude techniques and limited materials. The Whaleys farmed and raised livestock until 1905 when they sold the property to a short-lived horse breeding operation. At the height of the “apple boom” in 1909, the Bitterroot Valley Irrigation Company purchased the homestead, planting the upper fields with MacIntosh apple trees and gooseberry bushes for nursery stock. In 1921, new owners Fred and Anna Hagen returned the homestead to a self-sufficient farm, raising corn, potatoes, hogs, and dairy cows. After more than fifty years of farming, the Hagens sold the land and their son retained life use of the house. He remained here until 1988. Though the land again belongs to nature, the house, several old foundations, and the outbuildings chronicle the agricultural development of this fertile valley.
]]>Amidst economic prosperity brought on by the local “apple boom,” Stevensville physician Dr. William Thornton established this surgical center, then the only such facility in the entire Bitterroot Valley. Completed in 1910, builder W. R. Rodgers used brick and cast concrete of his own manufacture to construct the splendid Classical Revival style building. Dormers, arched windows, Tuscan columns, and a wraparound two-story veranda (originally surrounded by a spindled railing) typify the simple, elegant style. Modern equipment included a pressure sterilizer and photo X-ray machine. The hospital engaged private nurses to care for the patients. Surgical procedures were preformed on the second floor, seventeen patients’ rooms were on the second and third floors, and the first floor housed Dr. Thornton’s office and family living quarters. In 1917, Dr. Thornton moved to Missoula where he continued to make lasting contributions to the quality of health care in Montana. New owner Dr. P. S. Rennick remodeled the hospital in 1928, enlarging the sun porch and altering the west dormers. The medical center continued under Dr. Rennick’s management until his death in 1939. The closure of this landmark medical facility illustrates the loss suffered by rural communities as small hospitals could no longer compete with urban centers in the age of specialized medicine.
]]>The evolution of this architectural landmark reflects the growth of both education and religion in Stevensville, documenting the stability and changing needs of the community. Children had been attending classes at the Henry Buck home when Stevensville’s first permanent facility opened here in 1885. The school began as a two-story, cross-shaped Italianate style building, which featured tall corniced windows, two entrances with single-story porches, and a lantern-style ventilator atop the roof. The school grew with its enrollment: 325 students warranted a two-room addition in 1906, and by 1910 a full high school curriculum had been added. But by the 1920s, the building had outlived its usefulness as a school. Purchased and remodeled in 1928 by the combined congregations of the North and South Methodist-Episcopal Churches, the new façade transformed the building and its complex additions into a more unified whole. A monumental portico with graceful Tuscan columns replaced the original porches and entrances, a large domed cupola displaced the ventilator, and the once-plain windows were embellished with exquisite stained glass. Today the United Methodist Church is Stevensville’s finest example of the Classical Revival style, a well-maintained community treasure that is rich in history.
]]>Considerable skill made up for a lack of capital when Scottish-born John McLaughlin arrived in Stevensville in 1895. He immediately began to practice his trade as a blacksmith, setting up shop across the street from this property, which he purchased a few years later. In 1898 McLaughlin married, and in 1899 he and his bride, Florence, moved into this newly built residence, where they remained for more than forty-five years. The one-story frame home is a variation of the pyramidal cottage, a very simple architectural form popular at this time. The Register reported in 1909 that the McLaughlins’ unpretentious home was one of the town’s most pleasant, spacious, and well arranged, and the nine lots upon which it rested included “fine shrubbery and a beautiful lawn, as well as good orchard and garden.” McLaughlin did his part “to make the town look more progressive and modern” with wood sidewalks and later a poured concrete walk at the front. A full-width porch was added in 1912 and the back extension in 1927. This well-liked Stevensville booster was not only a fine blacksmith but also an accomplished preacher at the Methodist-Episcopal Church, South. Dubbed the “jolly smithy and preacher” by the editor of the Northwest Tribune, McLaughlin served as state representative and several terms as mayor between 1928 and 1941. Although the orchard is now gone, the trim home with its sweeping lawn and mature shrubbery continues to enrich the local landscape.
]]>Farmer Thomas McFarlane and his wife, Ellie, built this comfortable two-story gable-front-and-wing home in 1895. Turned porch supports and fish-scale shingles decorate the front façade. Those features are associated with the Queen Anne style, but the home sports classical elements as well, including regularly spaced windows, most finished with molded wooden entablatures; corner boards with suggestive capitals and rounded corners; and a wide frieze beneath the enclosed eaves. Although it looks like an addition, the one-story hipped roof room behind the house was part of the original design. Placing the kitchen under separate roof minimized fire risk. Bucket brigades could more easily reach a one-story roof, perhaps saving the main house in case of a kitchen fire. The design also provided good ventilation, a boon during hot summers. Netta Powell and her husband James, a farm laborer, bought the residence in 1900, selling it in 1904 to the First Presbyterian Church for $1,100. A block from the church, which then stood at Third and College, the home was well suited for a parsonage. Presbyterian ministers and their families lived here until the church disbanded in the 1930s. Although officially the minister’s home, a parsonage often served as a focal point for the congregation, the site of church committee meetings, small weddings, and other gatherings. Thus, the space provided by a rear shed-roof extension, constructed between 1900 and 1909, and an open back porch, constructed before 1927, served the church community as a whole, as well as providing more comfortable accommodations for the minister and his family.
]]>George May and brother Albert entered the sheep and cattle business here in 1892, leasing Fort Owen where George lived and where his children were born. As the business succeeded, he continued to purchase land, including in 1899 the plot where this home stands. The brothers’ Bitter Root Livestock Company owned 3,000 acres of land, on which it ran 20,000 sheep and 500 cattle. In 1900, along with a third brother, William Harry May, the Mays organized the Stevensville Mercantile Company. In less than a decade it became one of Western Montana’s largest businesses. For its building—the largest in Stevensville—as well as his own home, George May hired prominent Missoula architect A. J. Gibson (designer of the Missoula County courthouse among many other buildings). The May home was constructed in 1909. Its fine interior oak woodwork is especially notable, for the rancher-merchant did it himself. At age sixteen in his native Canada, he had apprenticed as a cabinetmaker. Although his fortune came from other endeavors, George May never forgot his craft.
]]>Albert May came to the Bitterroot valley with his four brothers in 1892. The Canadian-born May brothers raised stock, farmed, and operated several Stevensville businesses. Albert, his wife Phoebe, and daughter Alberta settled into this home circa 1899. In 1900, Albert became the newly incorporated town’s first mayor, securing 50 out of 54 votes. But tragedy marred the family’s success. An adopted son died young and Phoebe succumbed to respiratory illness in 1905. Alberta married and moved away while Albert remained in Stevensville with a second adopted son. Incapacitated by mental illness in 1914, he died in California in 1917. Dr. Frank Prince purchased the property in 1920, establishing his living quarters and medical offices here. According to an inscription in the dining room plaster, the residence dates to 1898. Its construction likely incorporated a log cabin which stood on the property by 1892. Described by the local newspaper in 1899 as “palatial,” this transitional Queen Anne style home features an ornate wraparound porch with decorative brackets, turned posts, and square balusters. A smaller back porch balances the asymmetrical plan. Lovely scrollwork in the gable ends, stained glass, and a clipped bay with delicate scrolled brackets and finials are quintessential Victorian-era elements. Clapboard siding with cornerboards and classical window treatments reveal the turn-of-the-century trend toward the Classical Revival style. Inside, original wood finishings, decorative woodwork, and period picture moldings reflect warm hospitality and period ambience.
]]>Stevensville, officially platted in 1879, was hardly on the map when John and Mary Landram came to the Bitterroot in 1875. Landram, a native of Missouri and a carpenter by trade, put his skills to immediate use helping to build the frame buildings that rapidly sprang up along Main Street. Building was not Landram’s only talent; he gained a fine reputation as a casket-maker. In November of 1890 the couple purchased several lots on this block and soon after acquired three adjoining lots. Their Dutch Colonial Revival style residence, completed by 1899, illustrates John Landram’s resourceful creativity and demonstrates his skills as a builder. At a time when new methods of printing made architectural photographs in books and periodicals more readily available, Landram no doubt took advantage of these in designing and building his own residence. A gently pitched front-facing gambrel roof, boxed cornice, cornerboards with classically detailed entablatures, and simple molded window lintels place the home within this architectural genre. Original woodwork and hardwood floors grace the well-planned interior. Two outbuildings, both in place by 1909, contribute to the historic ambience of this well-preserved home. The Landram House, one of the first residences constructed east of Stevensville’s business district, is equally significant for its association with this early pioneer family and for its locally unusual architecture.
]]>In 1905, a devastating fire swept through Stevensville destroying many of the town’s vulnerable wooden buildings. The tragedy prompted local officials to pass an ordinance requiring architects and contractors to build with non-flammable materials. Consequently all concrete block buildings in Stevensville date from the post-fire period between 1906 and 1916. Concrete block construction was a new technology at the time, but inexpensive on-site production was easily accomplished with a minimum of special equipment. D. L. Cannon, who lost his own general store in the fire, began Stevensville’s first concrete blockworks in 1907. Along with builders W. R. Rodgers and Lon Young, Cannon did much to promote the new building method. This fine example of early-twentieth-century cast-concrete construction was built by Cannon in 1909. The L-shaped, pyramidal-roofed cottage of vernacular design well illustrates Cannon’s excellent craftsmanship. Two large cottage windows with leaded glass and concrete lintels add to the appeal of this well-preserved home. Former Stevensville postmaster and Fort Owen Grange officer John Lancaster purchased the newly constructed modern home in 1909. Upon his death three years later, the property was bequeathed to James Lancaster, and the home remained in the family until 1928.
]]>The Stevensville Baptist congregation first organized as the Etna Baptist Church of Christ at the nearby Etna schoolhouse in 1882. In 1884, the growing membership purchased land in Stevensville and hired talented Missoula architect Thomas W. Longstaff to draw the plans for a church. The building, completed in 1886 at a cost of $2,904.39, is an excellent example of architect Longstaff’s adaptation of the Stick Style. Clapboard siding with decorative vertical, horizontal, and diagonal accents characterize this style, uncommon in Montana. The angles created through external ornamentation are intended to mimic the building’s structural skeleton. The classical symmetry of the floor plan and window placement, lavish Queen Anne style details including fish-scale shingling and beautiful stained glass, and the stick ornamentation blend to produce a statement of surprising elegance for a modest rural church. By 1887, all building expenses had been paid and the congregation had bought an organ. The church included Sunday school and baptismal services in the Bitterroot River. The bell, purchased by the membership from Sears Roebuck for eight dollars, was installed in the square bell tower in 1901. This architectural landmark, important for its association with one of Montana’s most respected architects, is equally significant for its long service as the religious and social center of the local Baptist community.
]]>The Homestead Act of 1862 drew settlers to the Bitterroot Valley and by the end of the decade, the newly settled community of Etna had established one of the first local school districts. A two-room log schoolhouse was built near this site in 1871. The school term was only three months long and children arrived, tucked snugly in straw and buffalo robes, in sleighs or wagons. That school burned in 1880 and a larger wood-frame building replaced it. Josephius and Callie Million at that time deeded this land to the school district. By 1890, there were forty students. At the turn of the century, the Bitter Root Valley Irrigation Project attracted investors and new residents. Etna thrived with the “apple boom.” Agricultural expectations dwindled after World War I but the Etna School still had plenty of students. Builders John Peterson and Adam Horning constructed this larger, more up-to-date facility in the summer of 1918. Financed with $6,000 in bonds, the building is noteworthy for its quality craftsmanship and Prairie styling, unusual in school architecture of western Montana. The school hosted many community activities over the years and served a many as 60 students before it closed in 1957. The building sat empty for a decade before new owners carefully converted it to a private residence. Now a bed and breakfast inn, landscaping and outbuildings have softened the once-stark panorama, and its demeanor has changed slightly, but the original function of the important valley landmark is readily apparent. It is an outstanding example of preservation and adaptive reuse.
]]>In 1901, John Emhoff purchased this property and built a one-story home for himself, his wife, daughter Elizabeth, and twin daughters Lois and Lora. John Emhoff was locally well known as owner and proprietor of the Stevensville Stage and Transport Company, the only outfit operating between the railroad depot and the central business district. In 1904, Emhoff commissioned local builder-architect W. E. Godfried to expand the home. Godfried added a second story to the east gable and north side, shaping the residence to its present appearance. This vernacular form, known as the gabled ell, was popular in rural areas across the country during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Delicate ornamentation in the spindle-and-scroll decorated gables, the turned posts with decorative brackets and spindles on the porch, and a leaded glass transom above a cottage window exhibit popular Queen Anne elements held over from the late 1800s. The clean lines, evenly spaced windows, and corner boards reveal newer classical tendencies. These features, typical of turn-of-the-twentieth-century transitional Queen Anne/Classical Revival styles, serve to anchor the residence to the streetscape of this quiet neighborhood. Lora and her husband, Ray Golder, made the residence their home, and ownership today remains in the Golder family.
]]>The DeNayer House is a fine example of transitional Queen Anne/Colonial Revival style architecture. The combination hipped and gabled roof and irregular floorplan are characteristic of the Queen Anne style while corner pilasters and clapboard siding clearly reveal transitional Colonial Revival style elements. In February of 1899, Dr. J. B. “Doc” DeNayer returned to Stevensville with his family to reopen his water-powered sawmill on the west side of the Bitterroot River. DeNayer’s wife, Julia, purchased these lots in 1899 and hired G. L. Martin, a local contractor, to build this residence. Construction began the following spring and the DeNayers moved into their fine new home in August, 1900. Two years later the DeNayers built a second residence just north of their home. In 1907, Mrs. DeNayer exchanged these properties for a business building owned by H. F. Hooper and planned to open a restaurant. The property changed hands several times until 1918, when Dr. William P. Reynolds bought the home. Reynolds and his wife, Winifred, were both medical doctors whose commendatory reputations were based, not only upon medical skills, but also upon their benevolent care, “…serving anyone, any time, and they were never overly concerned about a patient’s ability to pay.” The home remained in the Reynolds family until 1950. Over the years the residence suffered insensitive alterations, including removal of the original porch, removal of the bay window area on the first floor, and replacement of the wood shake roof with heavy asphalt shingles. Major restoration conducted during the early 1990s returned this marvelous home to its former place of honor on Main Street.
]]>“The music of the carpenter’s hammer is heard in all parts of the city,” reported the Stevensville Register in March 1910. “A sure indication that spring is here.” Construction of the Wilbur Cook house may have contributed to that spring music. Cook, who owned the property from 1909 until 1950, worked at a variety of jobs, including as a bartender at the Stevensville Hotel, a farmer, and the co-owner of a drayage (hauling) business. In 1920, he lived here with his wife, Mattie, and their three-year-old daughter, Helen. The Cook residence, with its exposed rafter tales, wide eaves, and large front porch, is one of three Craftsman style homes constructed circa 1910 on what was originally the John Catlin ranch. A Civil War veteran and early settler, Catlin led local volunteers in the Battle of the Big Hole against the Nez Perces in 1877. Sometime after 1903 he sold part of his ranch to James M. Higgins, an area farmer likely caught up in the rampant land speculation fueled by the Bitterroot apple boom. In 1909, Chicago entrepreneurs were excavating what was called the “Big Ditch” to irrigate ten- to twenty-acre orchard tracts throughout the valley, and a Missoula newspaper predicted that Stevensville would become headquarters to over ten thousand people. Cook, who bought this nine-acre property from Higgins, did not seem unduly affected by the short-lived boom. Born to area pioneers in 1884, he remained in this modest, but stylish home long after most apple speculators had left the valley.
]]>Calvin and Magdalene Cook came to Montana from Kansas in 1880 and settled near Stevensville. Like many early settlers, the Cooks’ intent was to farm. After more than a decade of farming, however, business opportunities in Stevensville beckoned and the family moved to town. In 1894, Calvin opened a transfer business, and in 1899 the Cooks became owners and managers of the Stevensville Hotel. Calvin added merchandising to his list of interests as partner in the Stevensville Trading Company. In 1910, the Cooks made plans to build a new home that would reflect their hard-earned success. Local architect Warren Roscoe Rodgers drew the plans for this beautiful residence, which provides a model example of the transition from Queen Anne to Classical Revival styles. Asymmetry of the roof line, ornate porch railings, and a two-story front bay reveal lingering Queen Anne elements fashionable in the late 1800s. A simple floor plan, classical Tuscan columns, and projecting portico reflect the emerging Revival style. Rodgers’ skillful use of concrete block, visible throughout Stevensville, is evident in the home’s decorative concrete block foundation. The residence passed to daughter Cora and husband John Emerson in 1930. It has since remained in the Cook family, a well-preserved, lasting tribute to these early settlers who put down roots in Montana.
]]>Stevensville experienced an intense period of economic growth and land speculation fueled by the “apple boom” of 1905-1922. This period in the Bitterroot Valley brought massive subdivision of agricultural lands, ambitious irrigation schemes, and aggressive marketing to entice homesteaders to settle on 10- to 20-acre orchard tracts. Prominent businessman and rancher George May joined the speculative fervor by subdividing a portion of his own 3,000-acre holdings. The parcel of land containing this lot was part of the May Addition, purchased by Emily E. Lepley in 1905 and officially added to the city plat in 1907. Circa 1914 the lot, further subdivided and including a newly built house, was purchased by widow Jennie Clark. This modest residence provides a very fine example of the Craftsman style, a design that was both practical and economical for the early middle-class residents like Jennie Clark. A covered porch with gabled roof supported by square posts on cobblestone bases enhances the simple lines. A gently sloped roof and bands of shingle and clapboard siding give the whole a horizontal emphasis typical of the Craftsman style. In 1931, Jennie’s daughter and heir, Genevieve, sold the property to Oscar and Mildred Enebo, and today this charming home remains in the Enebo family.
]]>The Caple family came to the Burnt Fork in 1884 from Webster County, Missouri. Caple became a successful rancher and real estate agent, profiting from brisk land speculation in the Bitterroot Valley during the early 1900s. Upon retirement from ranching, the Caples moved to Stevensville to supervise the building of their new home in town. Completed in 1909, the Stevensville Register proclaimed the Caples’ new residence one of the town’s most attractive and nicely furnished. The two-story Dutch Colonial style home features a gambrel roof with cross gambrel dormers and claims a prominent place in this residential neighborhood. Tuscan columns and decorative railings grace the full-width porch, inviting entry through the main door, which is beautifully glazed with oval beveled glass. Unusual and elegant pressed hardwood moldings around the doors and windows enhance the interior. The home was designed by W. R. Rodgers, a prominent architect-builder, who was largely responsible for the promotion and use of decorative cast concrete block throughout Stevensville during 1906-1916. The rock-faced cast concrete block foundation here reveals Rodgers’ specialty. Though the Caples soon returned to rural life on their son’s nearby ranch, this significant residence verifies the distinction of its well-respected first owners.
]]>Brothers William and Dudley Bass crossed the plains from Missouri by mule team, lured west in 1864 by tales of rich diggings. Disappointed in prospecting, the brothers homesteaded in the Bitterroot Valley near present-day Stevensville, where they pioneered the fruit industry in Montana. By the turn of the century, the Basses’ renowned Pine Grove Farm produced 10,000 boxes of apples shipped to such distant markets as New York and the Atlantic coast. By 1901, Dudley Bass had bought his brother’s interest in the business. He sold the ranch in 1907 and moved to Stevensville with his wife, Etta, and their son, Lee. In 1908, Dudley commissioned noted Montana architect A. J. Gibson to design this Neoclassical style landmark. Its grand entry with full-height porch and classical order columns bears a striking similarity to the entrances of the Missoula County Courthouse and the Daly Mansion in Hamilton, buildings designed by Gibson and also under construction at that time. The style required such strict symmetry that a false chimney was added to balance the composition. With all the grace of an antebellum plantation home, the interior features a regal U-shaped staircase, dining room with decorative beamed ceiling and pocket doors, and fine hardwood finishings throughout. A second-floor sitting room, entered through an archway off the hall, accesses the upstairs bedrooms. Wide windows with elegant beveled and leaded glass transoms invite unusually generous lighting. The gracious residence remained under Bass family ownership until 1959.
]]>Fort Owen’s log and adobe walls witnessed dramatic changes as the Bitterroot Valley emerged from remote wilderness to settled agricultural community. The Jesuit fathers who had established St. Mary’s Mission nearby in 1841 closed their doors in 1850, and trader John Owen purchased the property. Owen operated and expanded St. Mary’s mills, cultivated the fields, enlarged the fort, and kept a well-stocked trade room, thereby transforming the mission compound into a vibrant trading post complex. A man of many talents, Owen also served as agent to the Flathead Nation from 1856 to 1862, and for a time the fort was agency headquarters. Owen and his Shoshone wife, Nancy, created a refined and comfortable haven in the vast timberland, extending gracious hospitality to Indians, traders, trappers, missionaries, settlers, and travelers. With the 1860s came gold-seekers and a fresh clientele, but the newly completed Mullan Road bypassed Fort Owen and trading dwindled. Upon Nancy’s death in 1868, Owen’s mental health deteriorated. In 1872, Fort Owen was sold at sheriff’s sale to Washington J. McCormick, who operated the fort’s mills until 1889. In 1937, the Fort Owen site was donated to the State of Montana, and the donors sponsored stabilization and partial reconstruction of its sole remaining building, the East Barracks. Archaeological investigations initiated in 1957 by the University of Montana continued through 1980, exposing the fort’s walls and foundations. Since 1971, the Stevensville Historical Society has been instrumental in interpretive reconstruction, continued stabilization, and maintenance of this noteworthy site.
]]>Jesuit priests and lay brothers founded St. Mary’s Mission—the first mission in the Northwest—near this site in 1841. The Jesuits closed the mission in 1850, returning in 1866. For the next quarter century, they helped the Salish adapt from hunting to farming as the buffalo disappeared. The priests helped support and advocate for the Salish people and provided medical services and spiritual guidance to both Indians and whites. When the U.S. government forced the impoverished Salish to leave their beloved Bitterroot Valley for the Flathead Reservation in 1891, St. Mary’s closed. An influx of homesteaders prompted the creation of St. Mary’s Parish in 1910, and the old mission church reopened. In 1911, the Salish returned to St. Mary’s to celebrate their Bitterroot heritage, a tradition they still maintain. The historic district includes the 1866 church and pharmacy, designed by the multi-talented Father Anthony Ravalli. Ravalli, also the architect of Idaho’s famed Cataldo Mission, employed log building techniques, ingeniously adapting European ecclesiastical architecture to the remote frontier. Chief Victor’s log home and the Indian burial ground recall the Salish presence. Adjacent is St. Mary’s Cemetery and Father Ravalli’s final resting place. Two gnarled apple trees provide living evidence of the Jesuits’ agriculture. The new St. Mary’s, built in 1954 with donations from Montana and beyond, represents an unprecedented preservation effort to save the endangered mission church from deterioration through constant use. Today, St. Mary’s churches—old and new—define the historic complex as a place of significance to both Indian and white communities.
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