Labor leader, politician, and businessman John R. Walkup and wife Mary built this distinctive Richardsonian Romanesque style home in 1896 for $3,500. The heavy rough-cut sandstone foundation, arched porch entrance, window trim, and corner quoins represent the Richardsonian aesthetic. John left New York in 1889 to become a foreman printer at the Anaconda Standard. A natural leader, he was president of the Anaconda Typographical Union, served in the third Montana State Legislature, was the state Fireman’s Association president in 1896, and Anaconda City Treasurer from 1897 to 1899. In 1896, he started an excavation company and also ran businesses selling coal, ice, tobacco, and candy. Archer N. and Clara Jette purchased the home in 1909. Archer was superintendent of masons at the Anaconda Company smelter; Clara stayed home with their son Norman and was active in the Anaconda Woman’s Club. As club president in 1919-20, she helped raise funds to build a women’s cottage at the Montana State Hospital tuberculosis sanitarium. At the time, the sanitarium consisted of a thirty-bed building and six eight-bed cottages, all designed for men. The Jettes retired to California in 1939.
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