{"id":47,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:40:05","latitude":46.12919008489972583220151136629283428192138671875,"longitude":-112.9529392719268798828125,"title":"Anaconda Commercial Historic District","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/dc3e6c0627109fb270c3bc2d0a28bb40.jpg","address":"100-400 blocks on East Commercial Avenue; 0-200 blocks on Main Street; 100 block on Oak Street; 100-500 block on East Park Avenue, Anaconda, Montana","all_locations":[],"zoom":18,"creator":["Montana National Register Sign Program"],"description":"Backed by the powerful San Francisco syndicate of Hearst, Haggin and Tevis, Marcus Daly built the world’s largest smelter (combined upper and lower works) on Warm Springs Creek between 1883 and 1889. Along with the smelters, Daly envisioned a substantial city and filed the original townsite plat June 25, 1883. While smelter construction got underway that summer, people arrived faster than building supplies. The first boarding houses and saloons opened in tents. A railroad spur soon linked the town to the Anaconda Mine in Butte. By the time the furnaces of the Upper Works fired up in the fall of 1884, Anaconda’s 80 buildings included seven hotels and boarding houses and twelve saloons. At the end of 1885, Anaconda’s reduction works had a payroll of 1,700. The Anaconda Copper Mining Company dominated the local economy. Company subsidiaries built and maintained the city water supply, electric power system, and street railway. Daly and his associates established key commercial enterprises including the major bank, retailer D. J. Hennessy’s local company store, a race track, the highly acclaimed Montana Standard, and the Montana Hotel. Modeled after New York City’s Hoffman House, this premier hotel represented Daly’s political ambition as he promoted Anaconda in the race for state capital. Daly was bitterly disappointed when the city lost the capital race in 1894, but Anaconda survived as a vibrant piece of the Montana mosaic. Significant for its labor history and ethnic diversity, this unique company town was a place where private enterprise also flourished. Elaborate Victorian-era business blocks and the more utilitarian façades of the early twentieth century are testimony to a vigorous business community.<br /><br /><a href=\"https://historicmt.org/tours/show/21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Click here to tour the district.</a>","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"private","lede":"","website":"","related_resources":["<a href=\"https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/f3e23929-6aaf-4244-be35-c4fce6a405ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read more about the Anaconda Commercial Historic District</a>","<a href=\"https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/aad7f2de-8ee7-4015-85ca-dc587082e76f/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">See photos of the Anaconda Commercial Historic District</a>"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/dc3e6c0627109fb270c3bc2d0a28bb40.jpg":{"id":5482,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"The MONTANA","description":"facade | Montana Historical Society | August 5, 2022 | Bryan Baldwin","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/dc3e6c0627109fb270c3bc2d0a28bb40.jpg"},"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/03adf09784e84ce552e8f3e1e50b31fa.jpg":{"id":31,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"United States Post Office, streetview","description":"Still image capture of the East elevation of the United States Post Office in Anaconda. Image information recorded on print verso. b&amp;w print. | Official records of the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, Helena, Montana | no date | Rose Stuart","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/03adf09784e84ce552e8f3e1e50b31fa.jpg"},"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/2a4f8501ff3bf3d1d2ed39d0bcf27d6a.jpg":{"id":32,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Leland Hotel, streetview","description":"Historical still image capture of the 200 block of Main street including the Leland Hotel in Anaconda. Image information recorded on print verso and the phrase &quot;view to the northwest&quot; transcribed on the recto. b&amp;w print. | Official records of the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, Helena, Montana | no date | Original photographer unidentified","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/2a4f8501ff3bf3d1d2ed39d0bcf27d6a.jpg"},"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/6f7e89667fff7fa25cac6bdca18ffded.jpg":{"id":145,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"View of Commercial Street between Chestnut and Cedar Avenues, Looking Southeast","description":"View of Commercial Street between Chestnut and Cedar Avenues, Looking Southeast <br />Digital ID: (None) hhh <a href=\"http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.mt0103/photos.100170p%20\">mt0103.photos.100170p</a> <br />Reproduction Number: HABS MONT,12-ANAC,1--6 | <a href=\"http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/\">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs</a><br />Washington DC | [no date] | Unidentified photographer","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/6f7e89667fff7fa25cac6bdca18ffded.jpg"},"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/33e1afd51aac8c84ca15cf8ec5c5d2bc.jpg":{"id":146,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Main Street Looking North from Intersection of West Third Street.","description":"The 1932 Post Office is on the left. Sandstone from Indiana and Brick were used for the Exterior Walls, while waste brick from the Smelter was used for the interior foundation and basement Walls. Anaconda Historic District, Park &amp; Commercial Streets, Main Street vicinity, Anaconda, Deer Lodge County, MT <br />Digital ID: (None) hhh <a href=\"http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.mt0103/photos.100171p\">mt0103.photos.100171p</a> <br />Reproduction Number: HABS MONT,12-ANAC,1--7 | <a href=\"http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/\">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</a> <br />Washington, D.C. | [no date] | Unidentified photographer","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/33e1afd51aac8c84ca15cf8ec5c5d2bc.jpg"},"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/7a058d4e8f55523bd39f577f9b7f88f3.jpg":{"id":147,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Park Avenue East of Cedar Street (400 Block).","description":"The Marchion Hardware building was designed by W.W. Hislop, and built in 1895. The ground floor was renovated some time in the 1930s. In the center is the imperial block (ca. 1920), and the Fuller Drug Company (1918-1932).The fuller site was occupied by the Highland Theater from 1932 to 1972, and retains much of the interior decoration from that period. Anaconda Historic District, Park &amp; Commercial Streets, Main Street vicinity, Anaconda, Deer Lodge County, MT <br />Digital ID: (None) hhh <a href=\"http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.mt0103/photos.100172p\">mt0103.photos.100172p</a> &nbsp;<br />Reproduction Number: HABS MONT,12-ANAC,1--8 | <a href=\"http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/\">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</a> <br />Washington, D.C. | No known restrictions on publication. Image downloaded and presented using the Fair Use exemption to US Copyright. | Unidentified photographer","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/7a058d4e8f55523bd39f577f9b7f88f3.jpg"}}}