Preston Cottage
Local builder Charles Doenges built this Queen Anne cottage in July 1909 for Celia Preston as a rental property. The home’s narrow clapboard siding, shingled dormer, half-round window, and boxed bay window reflect typical stylistic details. Celia and her husband Eugene were prominent in Thompson Falls business and social circles. Celia raised five children, operated rental properties, and helped organize the Home Workers Society—the Methodist Church ladies aid group. Her husband Eugene Preston owned the lumberyard and livery stable and was influential in town affairs. Ralph H. and Lucy Bushnell were this home’s first renters. Ralph was supervisor of the Cabinet National Forest and Lucy was president of the Home Workers Society. During the 1910 “Big Burn,” Ralph directed more than four-hundred men fighting fires near Heron. Mount Bushnell, south of town, was named in his honor. In 1913, Ralph and Lucy moved to Twin Bridges. Power plant electrician John E. Tracy and his widowed mother rented the house that year. Just weeks after they moved in, John helped save the power plant from rising flood waters. He and other plant workers built a five-foot-high concrete wall and installed a sump pump to direct water away from the building. Alben and Marie Johnson and their two children lived here from 1914 until 1925. Alben held various accounting positions in Thompson Falls government, worked at the Thompson Falls Mercantile, and owned a homestead at Camas Prairie. In 1925, he became deputy state bank examiner and later became Montana’s first state controller.
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