Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte was driven to life by the rich mineral resources that lay underground. Gold and silver mining brought the city's population of forty men and five women in 1866 to 14,000 by 1885. However, it was Butte's copper, critical to the electrification of America, which gave Butte a 41 percent share of the world copper market and a population of 40,000 by 1910. The city's mineral wealth drew innovative mining technology, capital from the likes of Hearst and Rockefeller, and at least five railroad lines to exploit the resource. Paramount to the development of Butte's wealth, however, was the need for workers who came to Butte from more than 60 nations and ethnic groups. They worked hard, and often gave their lives to mining, making a significant contribution to the labor history of this country in the process. Severe winters and high temperatures underground required that miners build their homes near the mines, in the shadow of the tall gallows or head frames, contributing to a unique landscape of industrial, residential and commercial buildings. Butte, built on a hillside amidst its own industrial lifeblood, played a critical role in the development of our growing nation.
Montana Tech Campus
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The Enabling Act of 1889 laid the foundation for the Montana School of Mines, providing for the first federal land grants for the establishment of mining schools. This landmark provision thus recognized the significance of mining industries to the newly admitted western states of Montana, North…
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Montana Tech Campus Engineering Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The north half of this building was constructed in 1910 as a gymnasium and auditorium, designed by noted Montana architect C. S. Haire. It was the third campus building. As Montana Tech grew during the next decade, expansion became crucial. Engineering students in particular required spacious…
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Montana Tech Campus Gymnasium
Butte National Historic Landmark District
When the original campus gymnasium became the Engineering Building in 1923, plans were begun for a replacement. This splendid facility was completed in 1925 at a cost of $125,000. A swimming pool, handball courts, showers, and locker rooms comprised the lower floor while the main floor offered a…
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Montana Tech Campus Library / Museum
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The placement of this building on the corner overlooking Leonard Field and Summit Valley in 1939 added balance to the existing Montana Tech buildings and rounded out the campus. Designed by Butte architect Walter A. Arnold and constructed at a cost of $191,314, the three-and-one-half-story Art Deco…
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Montana Tech Campus Main Hall
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Montana architect John C. Paulsen designed this first campus building, completed in 1897, thereby setting the standard for later buildings on the school grounds. Paulsen, who died before its completion, was one of the Rocky Mountain region’s most prominent architects. Main Hall is significant for…
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Montana Tech Campus Mill Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Only nine of Main Hall’s twenty-five rooms were originally furnace heated. To remedy that situation, the mill building was constructed during 1907 and 1908 to house a large heating plant. This second campus building furnished steam heat to Main Hall and, later, to other campus buildings. Although…
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Montana Tech Campus President's Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Francis A. Thomson was the first school president to enjoy this fine residence, completed during his tenure in 1936. Thomson had declared upon his arrival in 1928 that, because of its barren grounds, the school had the “ugliest campus of any educational institution” in any of the continents.…
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Montana Tech Campus Residence Halls
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The Montana School of Mines continued to grow even during the lean years of the Great Depression. One of the challenges facing early students was locating living quarters within a reasonable distance of the school. Credit for the building of this H-shaped residence hall goes to Francis A. Thomson,…
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Simmons/Frazer House
Butte Historic District
Butte’s eclectic mix of Queen Anne and Craftsman style homes rapidly spread west from Uptown almost to the city limits by 1916. However, the hilly lots near Big Butte remained empty despite sweeping views and a quiet setting far from the Anselmo Mine yard. In 1917, Butte socialite Laura (Horst)…
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Hanson House
Butte Historic District
Development of Butte’s West Side neighborhoods coincided with its 1890 to 1892 population boom. Wealthy property owners built large, elegant homes, while developers constructed worker cottages and apartment buildings. A smaller boom, beginning in the 1910s, saw Craftsman style bungalows fill empty…
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Bowen Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The inscription in the corbelled cornice of this two-story residential/commercial block identifies its first owner, William Bowen, and declares its construction date as 1907. By 1909, the Eagle Saloon occupied one of the two storefronts while proprietor John Skubitz lived upstairs with his wife and…
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Burton K. Wheeler House
National Historic Landmark
In 1905, young New England attorney Burton Wheeler stepped off the train at Butte to stretch his legs, lost his money in a poker game, and decided to stay. Courtroom success quickly earned Wheeler a solid reputation. In 1908, Wheeler and his wife, Lulu, purchased this home, built in 1897 by…
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318 North Alabama Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Fish-scale shingles, a bay window, and a porch tucked into the entry define this Queen Anne style cottage and its mirror image next door. Irish-born Patrick McCarthy, a well-known meat market proprietor, built the two houses in 1897 as rental properties. Although originally joined by a breezeway at…
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1201 North Alabama
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Well-known Butte realtor E. Sterrett Shields and his family were the longtime residents of this interesting home, built just after the turn of the twentieth century. Shields was secretary/treasurer of the Butte Land and Investment Company and a nephew of its founder, S. V. Kemper. The firm…
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Silver Bow County Jail
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The Beaux Arts style building complex comprising the county courthouse and jail serves to firmly anchor Butte’s business district. Montana’s most distinguished architects of the period, Link and Haire, designed both the courthouse and this substantial three-story jail. The steel frame, brick, and…
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O'Rourke Apartments
Butte Historic District
Two years after designing the elegant Napton and Leonard apartments on Granite Street, architect William O’Brien designed this building for widow Mary O’Rourke in 1908. O’Brien, whose clients ranked among Butte’s wealthiest, designed the O’Rourke as a detached addition to the older Merrimac House…
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614 North Alaska
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Close proximity to the Original and Stewart mines guaranteed a steady stream of miners to keep the beds of this boardinghouse occupied. Built circa 1890, the two-story bay-fronted flat accommodated at least a dozen lodgers. From 1895 to 1906, Welsh miner John Williams owned the building, and his…
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Blodgett Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The increased demand for copper created by World War I sparked spectacular growth in Butte’s mining industry and population. A massive housing shortage resulted, leading to the construction of over 700 residences between 1916 and 1918, half of them on the "Flat." Lots went on sale in this…
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Tony's Tin Shop
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Swiss-born Antone Canonica pioneered the tin business in Butte, opening his first shop in 1898. In 1915, he constructed the ground floor of this building, moving his business and family residence here. By 1920, Canonica had completed the second story and named the building after his wife, Myra, as…
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Fairmont Creamery
Butte Historic District
South Butte’s industrial character developed quickly after 1881 as commercial foundries, warehouses, and mills located close to the railroad tracks. Chinese immigrant Sam Sing ran a laundry business on this corner from 1899 to 1906. In 1910, the Fairmont Creamery Company built this industrial…
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Rocky Mountain Bottling Works
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A myriad of rail-dependent businesses located in this area during the last decades of the nineteenth century, Hinds & Company, proprietors of the Rocky Mountain Bottling Works and agents for the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association, moved here in 1897. In 1900, the operation included a bottling…
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Helsinki Bar and Steam Bath
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Twelve saloons, six grocery stores, eighteen boarding houses, a community hall, and three saunas served “Finn Town,” a bustling ethnic enclave in the 1920s. Finns were relative latecomers to Butte, arriving in numbers around 1910. Miners of other nationalities lived here in the 1890s when this…
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Kelly Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The early 1890s brought an urgent need for more living and street-level commercial space. John F. Kelly commissioned the Butte architectural firm of Freys, Bartlett and McMillan to design this commercial-residential Queen Anne style structure in 1892. The upper façade, reminiscent of row house…
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City Hall, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte had over eighty working mines and a teeming population by 1890. The resulting flurry of industrial and commercial activity initiated a building boom, prompting Mayor Henry Mueller to oversee the construction of this handsome three-story Richardsonian Romanesque-inspired municipal building in…
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Forbis Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Originally a hotel with ground-floor offices, this three-story masonry building typifies the combination lodging/commercial space demanded by Butte’s growing population. Lawyer James W. Forbis financed construction of the building circa 1889. He and John F. Forbis opened ground-floor law offices…
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Thornton Hotel
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The emerging talent of architect H. M. Patterson is evident in this early example of his work, built circa 1890. Named for prominent local resident and Civil War veteran Colonel J. C. C. Thornton (who died in 1887), the stately hotel featured first-floor commercial space and upper-level apartments.…
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Thornton Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Beautifully detailed and thoroughly cosmopolitan, this $75,000 five-story hotel opened in 1901 featuring over one hundred rooms, a saloon, restaurant, barber shop, and bowling alley. A cast-iron and glass entrance canopy, stone balconies, Tudor arches, and decorative carving highlight the elegant…
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Finlen Hotel
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The decade following World War I brought an excess of copper to the world market and Butte suffered a severe economic slowdown. The Finlen Hotel and the Fox Theater were the only two substantial buildings constructed in Butte’s business district during the 1920s. New Year’s Day, 1924, marked the…
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Kelley Mansion
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A large circular portico with surrounding Ionic columns dominates the facade of this grand residence, constructed in 1906 for Cornelius “Con” Kelley and his wife Mary for the then princely sum of $20,000. Butte architect W.A. O'Brien's design for the Neoclassical Revival home also…
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Salvation Army Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Expansion of the mining industry during the 1880s bred a darker side to Butte’s “get rich quick” appeal. Foreign-born miners poured into Butte, often arriving hungry and homeless. The large immigrant population, combined with families left indigent through mining-related accidents, generated an…
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James Naughten Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
This two-story home was built circa 1900 by James Naughten, one of the state’s most skilled master mechanics. Naughten worked for various mining companies, including the North Butte Mining Company, where he installed the first electric hoist. By 1918, he had become president and manager of the…
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13 West Broadway
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The stone foundation and masonry fabric of this early 1880s commercial building reflect the change to fireproof building materials after 1879, when a catastrophic fire destroyed most of Main Street. In 1884, the two-story building, like many of its neighbors, had multiple uses. A millinery shop…
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Mantle / Henderson & Bielenberg Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A graceful semicircular arched entry of rough quarried stone is a striking feature of this three-story commercial/residential building that once housed the publisher of the Butte Miner. Built circa 1890 by pioneer stockman/financier N. J. Bielenberg, the first floor was remodeled in 1891 to…
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Kenwood Building
Butte Historic District
When sisters Marie and Gunelia Brecke opened their first lodging house on North Main Street in 1886, they had to haul water from a nearby well. They soon moved their business to West Broadway and continued to own and manage rooming houses and hotels, even after Marie married—and later…
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Independent Order of Good Templars, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Both men and women were admitted to this temperance organization, whose Montana Grand Lodge was organized in 1868. Butte Lodge #14 commissioned architect H. M. Patterson to design this appealing three-story building, completed in 1891, which served as the group’s meeting hall. While Patterson…
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Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Fraternal organizations were an important facet of most mining towns and helped establish social and civic stability in early communities. Members of Fidelity Lodge #8 constructed this meeting hall, one of the district’s oldest standing buildings, in 1884. The building’s dual function, with…
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Morier Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A rounded corner and distinctive brick give this commercial/residential combination an unusual appearance. Historic maps reveal that before 1884, a collection of frame dwellings occupied this corner. North Dakota Street was then named Academy because the Butte Public School took up the neighboring…
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J.L. Morris Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
H. M. Patterson designed this residential building for J. L. Morris in 1898, replacing an earlier dwelling. A year later, Morris commissioned J. A. Riddell to add a storefront to the east at a cost of $9,000. Danish immigrant L. M. Brobeck rented the building in 1900, opened a grocery business on…
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134 West Broadway
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A private ground-floor residence with rooms for rent upstairs was the original function of this 1880s two-story building. Its history provides a fascinating glimpse of life in early-day Butte. Maps of 1888 and 1890 show that a frame open-air porch spanned the building’s length at the rear. An…
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First Baptist Church, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
In 1882, the Baptists established their first church in Butte. By 1890, membership numbered 65 and steadily grew until, at 450 members in 1905, new quarters were imperative. The following year marked the beginning of an unprecedented commercial building boom, and the Butte Miner reported on June…
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First Presbyterian Church, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
While Butte’s personality was taking shape in the form of impressive commercial buildings, the construction of five major churches in little more than two decades added grace and eloquence to the city's demeanor. The Presbyterians, organized in Butte in 1878, commissioned the town’s most…
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James Ross Clark Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The exceptional preservation of this very elegant home can be attributed to the meticulous care of its few long-term owners. Built circa 1886-1888, the first resident was James Ross Clark, brother of copper magnate W. A. Clark. By 1906, John MacGinniss, who married into the Clark family, lived in…
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315 West Broadway
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Judge John McHatton, his wife, Rose, and their children made their home in this two-and-one-half-story Queen Anne style residence from 1895 until 1918. Built in 1892, the elegant brick and clapboard home designed by Butte architect John Patterson features the abundant angles and decoration that…
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Newton / McCrimmon House
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Lively and diverse architectural styles distinguish this part of Butte, where grand residences built for prominent citizens intermingle with simpler homes, churches, and a few businesses. H. M. Patterson, author of some of Butte’s most captivating architecture, designed this noteworthy home circa…
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Charles Walker Clark Mansion
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The eldest son of copper king William Clark built this twenty-six-room mansion for his bride, Katherine Quinn Roberts, in 1898. Massachusetts architect Will Aldrich reputedly modeled the residence after a French chateau the couple visited while honeymooning in Europe in 1896. The exterior features…
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412 West Broadway
Butte National Historic Landmark District
In 1890, a wooden shotgun house stood at 412 West Broadway, while a substantial brick residence stood to the east. When wholesale produce merchant H. E. Morier and his wife, Teresa, decided to build this two-story home in 1907, they discovered that the neighboring brick residence encroached on…
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Hawke Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
John and Elizabeth Hawke moved into their newly constructed home circa 1903. The brick-veneered residence features an elegant two-story bay, which, along with the low hipped roofline and the brackets under the wide, projecting eaves, reflects the Italianate style. The roof was originally rolled…
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Boucher - Walker Home
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte as melting pot is well-chronicled in this Queen Anne style mix of high gables and multi-paned windows. Its appearance is typically English, as is the interior décor, yet it was built by a French native and occupied for much of its life by Irish-Americans. One of the first homes in this…
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Albert J. Campbell Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Architect William A. O’Brien designed and built this striking home in 1906 for ACM attorney Albert J. Campbell. The massive brick-veneered residence demonstrates O’Brien’s bold employment of the new Prairie style promoted by Chicago architect Frank Lloyd Wright. A single-story porch, concrete…
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Wynne / Conroy Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Scattered development marked this Butte neighborhood during the 1890s as the population grew and the demand for all types of housing increased. By 1900, few lots remained on this side of the block. Merchandise broker E. Walter Wynne, at this address as early as 1895, was likely the home’s first…
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Harry W. Turner Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Local legend has it that in 1915, Harry W. Turner jacked up the one-story 1890s house on this lot and constructed a new first floor beneath it. Telltale evidence is found in the twelve-foot first-floor ceilings—a height not typically found in one-story Butte homes—and gas pipes only on the second…
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843 West Broadway
Butte National Historic Landmark District
James H. Monteath, assistant manager of the Inter-Mountain Publishing Company and assistant secretary of the Aetna Savings and Trust Company, was the original owner of this lovely two-story home built of frame with brick veneer circa 1891. A graceful elliptical porch serves as focal point while…
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Davis House
Butte Historic District
Mining engineer Raymond G. Bettenson and his wife Gertrude built this classic, side-gable Craftsman style bungalow between 1910 and 1914. Raymond grew up just a block away in a handsome Queen Anne cottage. His childhood neighborhood still had open space remaining between the School of Mines hill…
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Nelson/Ivory House
Butte Historic District
Carriage painter Frank O. Nelson and his wife Elizabeth constructed this richly embellished Queen Anne cottage circa 1897. Key ornamental elements include scalloped shingle siding, scrolled brackets, colored glass windows, turned porch posts, cutout rails, and a spindle frieze. In late 1898, the…
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1117 West Broadway
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Norwegian-born carpenter Albert Broadland arrived in Butte in 1912. The prolific builder constructed nearly half the homes in the Rowe Addition on the Flats, the elegant Finlan Hotel, and many Craftsman style bungalows in Uptown. Built circa 1916, this one-story Broadland bungalow features wide…
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931 Caledonia
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Miner John Trevithick worked at the Leonard Mine in Meaderville when he built this one-story brick home in 1900. Such five-room, L-shaped dwellings provided affordable, attractive residences for many Butte miners. Front polygonal bays and mass-produced decorative detailing provided visual interest…
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Woodward House
Butte Historic District
Anaconda Company draftsman Alfred Longley and his wife Victoria bought this exemplary Craftsman style house, with Prairie style influences, in 1904. Three years later, an article in The Craftsman magazine featured their distinctive home, extolling the virtues of Butte’s emerging Craftsman style…
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Clark Duplex
Butte National Historic Landmark District
H. M. Patterson, Butte’s most gifted architect, designed four identical duplexes along this block in 1899 for William A. Clark, Jr., the son of copper king W. A. Clark. Two other duplexes around the corners on Silver and Mercury were also designed by Patterson and built by Clark at about the same…
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Clark House
Butte Historic District
George and Elizabeth Clark, immigrants from Cornwall, England, lived in this hipped-roof cottage for thirty years. George arrived in Butte in 1875, while Elizabeth and their three children followed in 1879. By 1890, the Clarks had settled in Centerville, within walking distance of the Mountain…
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105 West Center
Butte National Historic Landmark District
William and Ellen Burt owned this L-shaped residence free and clear in 1920, but not the ground upon which it sat. As with many Centerville homes, the Anaconda Company kept ownership of the land, retaining the right to extract or explore for ore “in, on, or beneath the surface of the Property.”…
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107 West Center Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A gable-topped polygonal bay and small porch add charm to this brick hip-roofed cottage. Built in 1912, it was home to English (undoubtedly Cornish) miner Edward Dower and his wife Clara in the 1910s. The Gilmore family occupied the house by 1923, and members of the family continued to live here…
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Richmond Apartments
Butte National Historic Landmark District
As World War I raged in Europe, Butte boomed, its economy buoyed by the high price of copper. Among its many other uses, copper was an essential ingredient in brass, which was used to make shell casings. To house Butte's growing population, real estate developers invested in apartment…
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615 South Clark
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Architects promoted the Craftsman style as ideal "for the lover of the out-of-doors." Large front porches and the use of natural material like wood shingles and cobblestones connected homes "directly to the world of nature." Such symbolic associations may seem out of place in…
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Duggan Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte miners called the deadly rocks that fell in mine tunnels “Duggans.” The reference was to undertaker Lawrence Duggan, who lived in this house from 1910 until his death in 1939. One of the first professionally trained embalmers in Butte, Duggan opened a mortuary at 322 N. Main in 1895. Perhaps…
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301 North Crystal
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Interesting window placement is a hallmark of prominent Butte architect Charles M. Prentice and his own modified Italianate style residence, built circa 1898, provides an eye-catching example. Prentice alternated panels of full and half windows, richly ornamenting many of them with beveled,…
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St. Francis Apartments
Butte National Historic Landmark District
An open balcony adds architectural interest to this brick apartment building, constructed circa 1912 by the proprietress of the adjacent Parisian Dye Works, Maria Paumie Rimboud. Madame Rimboud was born in Paris and always spoke French with her employees. She brought a new method of cleaning when…
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George Dent's Barbershop
Butte Historic District
Little evidence survives today of the industrial giant that once consumed this neighborhood. By 1889 when the first cable car ran on an impressive trestle to the north above the settlement, the Moulton and Alice mines were fully developed and Walkerville was an industrial hub. By this time,…
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727 West Daly Street
Butte Historic District
The younger brother of Walkerville merchants Joseph and George Broughton, James lived with George after arriving in the booming silver camp, sometime before 1885. Among his many jobs, James worked as a bartender, clerk, whisky distilling agent, traveling salesman, and for many years was…
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919 Delaware
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Once part of a bustling urban neighborhood, the 900 block of Delaware accommodated four single family homes, six apartment buildings, and a corner store. Three buildings stood on this lot. With houses built so closely together, little light entered residences from the side windows. The beautiful…
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1117 North Emmett
Butte National Historic Landmark District
“Let us help you breathe the air of freedom by selling you a home on the monthly payment plan.” So advertised the Butte Land and Investment Company, which sold William and Louvia Rowe this lot in 1919. Home ownership offered the Rowes a piece of the American dream, even as they struggled…
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Gillies/Parent House
Butte National Historic Landmark District
This showcase Queen Anne style home adds ambiance to one of Butte’s most prominent blocks. An elegant brick arch, flared overhangs accentuated with wooden brackets, projecting oriel windows, a centered Palladian window, and an extended gable decoration visually complicate the front facade.…
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William Symons Residence
Butte Historic District
A graceful rounded portico with Ionic columns and a central square bay with French doors highlight the perfect symmetry of this grand Classical Revival style residence of tan brick veneer and red sandstone trim. Elegant details include elaborate brackets, dentils, a round window, and full-width…
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John Gillie Home
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Armed with a degree in mining engineering, Canadian John Gillie arrived in Butte via stagecoach on April 6, 1880. The mining camp was so crowded that even hotel floor space rented at a premium. Gillie bedded down in in the hayloft of a barn, a rude beginning to a long and distinguished career.…
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Hodgens / Ryan Home
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Thomas Hodgens, who held the prestigious position of cashier at the State Savings Bank, was the first owner of this magnificent T-shaped Classical Revival style residence built in 1899. Second owner John D. Ryan purchased the home in 1905. Ryan rose from a lowly oil drummer to president of the Daly…
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Scovil Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
John Scovil worked as a watchman for the Anaconda Company after he first arrived in Montana in 1884. He opened a laundry in 1894; six years later he purchased the Union Laundry in Butte. By 1911, Scovil and a partner owned almost all of the laundries in Butte and employed approximately 175 people.…
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615-617 1/2 North Excelsior
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Bay-fronted flats with large, two-story porches were a popular solution to Butte’s housing shortage. The city boasted over two hundred of these characteristically urban buildings by 1920, with the majority constructed before 1910. The bay windows brought light and air into the apartments, while the…
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Gannon Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Home ownership symbolized independence and respectability when John and Rose Gannon constructed this five-room cottage circa 1904. A pared-down version of a high-style asymmetrical Queen Anne residence, the brick home represented a stake for thirty-six-year-old John Gannon, an oiler at the Diamond…
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100 South Excelsior
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The Classical Revival style is grandly expressed in this exemplary residence of high-fired tan brick, built between 1916 and 1920. A symmetrical façade with central porch, double entry doors, square brick columns, and a central gable over an extended bay achieve the rich harmony characteristic of…
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Paul Clark Home
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The Associated Charities of Butte was organized during the late 1880s “to help the worthy poor to help themselves.” While the early group focused on distributing food and clothing to the needy, the children’s home at 542 Nevada soon became the pivot of its energies. The present facility was a gift…
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Butte Daily Post Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Architect Herman Kemna, who began his Butte practice in 1898, designed this attractive corner landmark at the end of his productive career. The two-story building of brick and concrete, constructed in 1922 at a cost of $45,000, features large arched ground-floor windows and a series of brick…
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Forestell Flats
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The impressive appearance of this 1906 bay-fronted multi-family dwelling, a common building type in early day Butte, reflects a compromise between the desire for a single-family home and the need for living space in this city bursting with inhabitants. Built at a cost of $7,000 by prolific westside…
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Paumie Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Maria and Camille Paumie came to Montana from France in 1887. They constructed the west half of this building circa 1890, known as the Parisian House; its furnished rooms were rented out under various proprietors. The bottom floor was the Parisian Dye Works, a dye house and dry-cleaning business…
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128-130 West Galena Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Frank H. Cooney, one of four brothers in the merchandising business in Butte, purchased this lot on the William Penn Quartz Lode for $30 in 1898. As was usual in early Butte real estate deals, the mining company retained ownership of the property below the ground surface. Cooney, who later served…
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321 West Galena Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte School District #1 constructed this attractive four-story building between 1918 and 1920 to house the high school’s Manual Training Department. The United States Army Recruiting Center was located here during World War II and, later, from 1954 to 1963, it was the site of Butte Business…
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B'Nai Israel Temple
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte’s ethnic diversity is well represented in this beautiful synagogue, dedicated in 1904. After the Jewish community split into one reform and two orthodox groups, this temple was built for use by the reform congregation. The three-story masonry building features a corner bell tower with an…
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510 West Galena Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
William Mosby, proprietor of the King and Mosby Saloon, acquired this property in 1889. By 1890, a one-story residence with a square corner bay occupied the lot. Mosby and his wife, Eliza, sold the house for $2,000 to Jeremiah and Kate Mullins in 1893. Mullins, also a prosperous saloon proprietor…
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Henry Kroger Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Prominent contractor and real estate developer Charles Passmore, who advertised construction of homes on the installment plan, built this Queen Anne style residence in 1896. By 1897, it was home to Henry and Lavinia Kroger and their young daughter, Anita. The Krogers’ household included a live-in…
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817 West Galena Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte’s giant copper industry brought workers crowding into every available space. Residential building lots were at a premium and yards nearly nonexistent at the end of the nineteenth century. This Queen Anne style cottage, built circa 1897, illustrates the need to construct houses close together…
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W.A. Clark Jr. Carriage House
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The opulent stables and carriage house of William A. Clark, Jr., son of copper king millionaire William A. Clark, bear the unmistakable hallmark of Butte architect H. M. Patterson. The symmetrical Renaissance Revival design features a grand entry arch in a mixture of sandstone trim and mottled…
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W.A. Clark Jr. Home
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A unique blend of historical elements and details characterize the home of W. A. Clark Jr., built in conjunction with the adjacent carriage house in 1900. H. M. Patterson’s asymmetrical design features a granite coursed ashlar foundation, rusticated base, and corbelled brick banding on the…
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Evans Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Architect William A. O’Brien designed this grandly scaled Craftsman style bungalow for prominenet attorney Lewis O. Evans circa 1906. The stunning home incorporates Craftsman style characteristics, but its magnificent gabled dormers and prominent corner location make it a Butte landmark. After the…
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Hennessy Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
In little more than a decade, entrepreneur Daniel Hennessy’s mercantile business became Montana’s first and most elegant department store. Minneapolis architect Frederick Kees designed the magnificent 1898 Renaissance Revival style showcase of steel, terra cotta, decorative glass, and wrought iron…
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The Napton
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A grand arched entryway topped by a wooden bracketed cornice and ornate iron rail welcomes visitors to the Napton. Because downtown apartment buildings were a hallmark of big cities like New York and Chicago, construction of the Napton Apartments in 1906 contributed to Butte’s image as a booming…
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Thornton Hotel Addition
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Premier Montana architects J. G. Link and C. S. Haire designed this three-story annex in 1906 as an extension of the elegant Thornton Hotel on Broadway. The building was one of the first designed by the two prestigious architects after they had formed their dynamic partnership in January of that…
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Curtis and Majors Real Estate
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Civil War politics prevented young John H. Curtis from practicing law in Missouri since, as a Confederate sympathizer, he could not take the required oath of allegiance. After the war, Curtis booked passage on the steamer Waverly, arriving at Fort Benton in 1866 with just a few dollars. He built up…
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Casey Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Multistoried masonry buildings such as this fine 1890 example, designed to meet the high demand for urban retail space and living quarters, reflect the housing shortage during Butte’s copper boom years. A flat roof, decorative brickwork, recessed entries flanked by display windows, and large…
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Lawlor & Rowe Insurance Company
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Graceful arches and a lovely stone balustrade atop a stone cornice make this attractive Georgian Revival style building a perfect companion to the adjacent Water Company Building. Multi-paned windows trimmed in stone and brick, a dentil frieze below the cornice, and a pleasing symmetry achieved…
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Butte Telephone Company
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The end of a long court battle between Amalgamated Copper and renegade mine entrepreneur F. Augustus Heinze in 1906 brought about an unprecedented building boom. The Beaux Arts style, with its grandiose composition and exuberant detail, was the perfect façade to symbolize Butte’s new-found…
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Silver Bow Club
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The elegance of Renaissance Revival-inspired details conveys the extravagance of Butte’s first men’s social club, established in 1882. The prestigious Helena architectural firm of Link and Haire designed the club’s new quarters, completed in 1907, which provided an opulent meeting place for Butte’s…
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Silver Bow County Courthouse
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Prestigious architects Link and Haire designed this magnificent four-story courthouse in the Beaux Arts style. This grandiloquent form introduced at Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exposition was often utilized in American civic buildings. Offices within are laid out around a rotunda with an elaborate…
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Carpenter's Union Hall
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte’s reputation as the “Gibraltar of Unionism” in the Rocky Mountains was further strengthened with the construction of this finely appointed Renaissance Revival style labor temple, one of the first built in the United States. The Butte Carpenters’ Union, Local #112 chartered in 1890, financed…
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Leonard Apartments
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Turn-of-the-twentieth-century social critics viewed apartment living as “the most dangerous enemy American domesticity has had to encounter.” Butte investors ignored this admonition, constructing the fashionable Leonard Apartments in 1906 to help solve an unprecedented demand for housing. Designed…
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William A. Clark Mansion
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Self-made multimillionaire William Clark spent an estimated $260,000 on the construction of this splendid thirty-two-room residence between 1884 and 1888. Though an astounding sum, that figure represented only a half-day’s earnings out of Clark’s seventeen-million-dollar a month income. The…
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M.J. Connell House
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Exceptionally fine craftsmanship and an intriguing combination of styles characterize this early and very elegant brick-veneered home, built in 1880. In 1892, dry goods merchant Michael J. Connell commissioned local architect Charles Prentice, known for his creative façades, to add the east wing,…
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Harry D'Acheul Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A gentle arch, a simple balustrade, and a pair of sloping columns frame the entrance of this quietly elegant residence dating to the mid-1880s. An exceptional example of the hip-roofed cottage with a central gable, the well-preserved Victorian-era home appears much as it did when first owned by…
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Eugene Carroll House
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A corner location affords two views of this captivating home, built in the mid-1880s and first owned by Butte attorney Thomas Napton. By 1897, Eugene Carroll, who later became the long-time vice president and manager of the Butte Water Company, owned the property. He and his wife, Mary, resided…
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John Benton Leggat Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Elaborate and elegant on its eye-catching corner, this well-tended gabled and turreted Victorian-era home was built circa 1897 for mining engineer J. Benton Leggat. Bowed glass, a diamond-paned window, and dentils under all the eaves spark its distinctive personality. An 1890 graduate of Washington…
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403-405 West Granite
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Hardware merchant William M. Jack built this two-story dwelling circa 1890. Scottish-born Jack was a dealer in hardware, tinware, stoves, pumps, and mining equipment. A collection of several outbuildings, a small house, two large warehouses for stoves, and an underground stable covered the site in…
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410 West Granite
Butte National Historic Landmark District
“Next to mining and smelting, litigation is the chief industry of Butte, and highly profitable to the lawyers,” reported a writer in 1901. One of Butte’s many lawyers, Frank T. McBride arrived in Montana in 1879. He and his wife, Rose, and son, Francis, lived in this two-story Queen Anne from 1896…
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414 West Granite
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte’s architectural diversity is legendary, and this Mission style home adds to that reputation. The Mission style traces its roots to Hispanic California and in Montana, it most frequently appears in civic, rather than residential, buildings. Butte’s copper king W. A. Clark, for example,…
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Mueller Apartments
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Turn-of-the-century critics called apartment living “a shortcut . . . to the divorce court.” These moralists believed that the proximity of bedrooms to living areas—and the easy access to both by neighbors—encouraged promiscuity, while apartment dwellers’ limited housekeeping duties encouraged a…
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635 West Granite
Butte National Historic Landmark District
“For years, it has been almost impossible to accommodate all the people with comfortable houses or apartments,” a Butte newspaper reported in 1901. “The city is growing very fast, and the builders have all they can do to put up enough buildings to accommodate them all.” This block is a case in…
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Powers Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
For almost one hundred years, members of a single family lived in this Queen Anne style cottage. Carpenter R. R. Williams, who lived in the duplex next door, built the residence in 1898. By 1900, Irish immigrants John and Catherine Powers had purchased the home, where they lived with their infant…
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803 West Granite
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Prominently situated on a corner lot, this Queen Anne style residence is a neighborhood showpiece. Band leader Sam Treloar had the brick-veneered house constructed in 1901, possibly as an investment property. The Cornish bandmaster is best known as the leader of the Butte Mines Band, which he…
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805 West Granite
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Architect J. Roy McGlauflin designed this Queen Anne style home in 1898 during Butte’s second building boom. Ornamental brackets beneath wide gable trim draw attention to the gable end, decorated with fish-scale shingles. McGlauflin placed the kitchen of this two-story home under a separate…
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815 West Granite
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte boomed as copper production doubled in the 1890s. The city issued 1,684 building permits between 1897 and 1898 as carpenters worked furiously to keep up with the demand for housing. The availability of mass-produced decoration allowed builders to embellish residences, and houses like this one…
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821 West Granite
Butte National Historic Landmark District
In 1890, the sound of hammers echoed throughout Butte’s West Side, a result of the community’s phenomenal growth as it converted from a silver town to a copper metropolis. Butte grew over two hundred percent during the 1880s, and this home was one of many built to accommodate the newcomers, who…
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831 West Granite
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The Queen Anne style is beautifully interpreted in this Victorian-era showpiece built circa 1891. The T-shaped residence features unusual elements including mock brick quoins at the corners and a large front window with an arched upper light of stained glass cutwork. The decorative bargeboard in…
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Andrew Jackson Davis Home
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The builder of this residence was the second of three Butte men of the same name. The elder A. J. Davis (1819-1890) was said to have been Butte’s first millionaire and founded the predecessor to the First National Bank of Butte in 1877. His nephew Andy, the second A. J. Davis (1863-1941), started…
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John E. Davis Home
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A myriad of Victorian-era details makes this splendid residence and its next-door neighbor, built by brothers John E. and A. J. Davis, true period showcases. Known as the “Twin Sisters,” these mirror-image homes were constructed in 1891 for the handsome sum of $7,000 each. Steeply pitched roofs…
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856 West Granite
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Stone, brick, and wood combine to add texture to this Queen Anne style residence, built circa 1900. The open front porch with spindlework posts, projecting bay, and small turret topped by a metal finial are hallmarks of the style. Insurance agent Wilbur Bachelor, his wife Kitty, and their four…
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Maley Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Elaborate details enhance this residential/commercial building, originally of one story, constructed in 1900. Its upper floors were added circa 1910, and the apartments were among the better uptown lodgings. The masonry building has its dual function in common with its immediate neighbors and, like…
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518 Henry Avenue
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Attorney Louis Sanders, who resided next door, owned this lot in 1905. Likely constructed that year, this one-and-one-half-story residence became home to fellow attorney John E. Corette in 1906. By 1910, Howard Music Company president John Howard had purchased the house, where he lived with his…
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721-723 North Henry Avenue
Butte National Historic Landmark District
With a two-story, north-side bay window providing extra light and air, this brick duplex takes full advantage of its corner lot. Tuscan columns support the gabled porticos that define the private entrances to a first-floor flat and an interior staircase that leads to the second-story apartment.…
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819 North Henry Avenue
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte’s voracious appetite for laborers created a huge demand for housing and sent rental rates skyrocketing beyond the means of most working folks. Real estate companies responded, platting new additions and building inexpensive, modest houses that could be purchased on time payments. One company…
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St. John's Episcopal Church
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A small stone building erected on this site in 1881 was one of Butte’s first churches. After 1900, the church was remodeled several times, incorporating the original building into a much larger structure. When fire swept through the chancel in 1919, one of Butte’s first preservation projects…
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St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal (South) Church
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Noted architect William White designed this majestic, multi-gabled church of stone and brick, built at a cost of $10,000 in 1899. Gothic lancet windows, stained glass, Romanesque arches, and wood tracery in the gable windows showcase White’s meticulous attention to fine detail. A steeple above the…
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1115 Lewisohn
Butte National Historic Landmark District
New York capitalist Leonard Lewisohn—a principal in both the Boston and Montana and the Butte and Boston mining companies—invested heavily in Butte even though he never lived here. Among his other business ventures, he and business partner Simon Jacobs platted the Waukesha Addition in 1891. The…
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1129 Lewisohn
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Craftsman style bungalows were phenomenally popular in the 1910s, nationally and in Butte. A low-pitched gable roof, open porch, exposed rafter tails, and decorative knee braces identify this well-preserved example of the style. Constructed between 1900 and 1915, the home boasts its original…
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M & M Cigar Store
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Sam Martin and William F. Mosby were the first of many proprietors of the legendary saloon, eatery, and gambling house that has operated here since 1890. Although Martin and Mosby’s tenure was short, Butte’s love of nicknames endured and their initials remain on the M & M. For more than a…
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Rookwood Hotel
Butte National Historic Landmark District
James Pratt, proprietor of the Red Boot and Shoe Company, spent $30,000 on the construction of this hotel/rooming house in 1912. The shoe company occupied the ground floor space through the 1930s. Large display windows and a Tudor-arched entry, designed to entice customers and guests, enhance the…
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Chequamegon Cafe
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Originally a three-story building, this old-timer was constructed circa 1884 as a restaurant and hotel. From 1888 to 1900, the upper floors were the Clarendon Lodging House managed by Anna Parker and later by Sophia Helmstedter and Mary Schmidt. The third story was removed during remodeling in…
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First National Bank, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Farmer, trader, and grist mill operator Andrew Jackson Davis, reportedly Montana’s first millionaire, founded the First National Bank in partnership with influential politician Samuel T. Hauser in 1877. Upon Davis’ death in 1890, a nephew of the same name took over banking operations. The younger…
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123 North Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Cast-iron pilasters, a metal cornice, interior hardwood paneling and a pressed metal ceiling are reminders of the varied remodelings of this early commercial building, constructed before 1884. In 1895, architect H. M. Patterson remodeled the building for $5,000, adding a cast-iron storefront. By…
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125 North Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Like its immediate neighbors, this is one of Butte’s earliest substantial buildings. Dating before 1884, it documents various periods of use through a distinct sequence of visible alterations. The ground floor commercial space was originally occupied by a jeweler and a tailor. Furnished rooms were…
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Tuttle Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Shelley Tuttle began a Butte foundry and machine shop business in 1881. By 1890, the expanded Tuttle Manufacturing and Supply Company had a plant in Anaconda and employed twelve machinists, blacksmiths, molders, and pattern makers. Tuttle supplied parts and machinery for local mining operations,…
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Federal Building, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
For one dollar copper king Marcus Daly and J. H. Leyson donated the land to construct this massive brick and stone civic building. Local builders Shackleton and Whiteway won the bid for the $279,000 building, and ground-breaking took place in October of 1902. An excellent representation of…
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St. Mary's Church
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Square towers, a central circular window, and stained glass grace this Catholic church, which long represented the heart and soul of Butte’s Irish community. St. Mary’s Parish, founded in 1902 by Bishop John Brondel, encompassed a neighborhood of miners and tradesmen. Fire destroyed the original…
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611 North Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Copper king William A. Clark and other prominent businessmen platted the Warren and Kingsbury Addition in 1878 just above Clark’s Original Mine. In 1888, a small wooden dwelling occupied this lot. This one-story duplex, with a rubble stone foundation, brick veneer, and corbelled cornice, replaced…
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931 North Main Street
Butte Historic District
This block was bustling with businesses circa 1895 when bartender Patrick Cosgrove and his wife Mary built this Queen Anne style cottage to replace an older house on the lot. The porch’s Tuscan columns, fancy fish-scale shingle siding, and leaded-glass front window brought style and civility to the…
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Trinity Methodist Church
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Thousands of skilled miners from Cornwall, England, immigrated to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century as English tin and copper mines played out. Many settled in Butte’s working-class communities. Centerville was home to equal numbers of Cornish, who were mostly Methodists, and…
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St. Lawrence O'Toole Church
Butte Historic District
Bishop Brondel created Butte’s second Catholic parish, that of St. Lawrence O’Toole, in 1897. Constructed with $25,000 raised by miners’ subscription on land donated by the Butte and Boston Mining Company, the Gothic Revival style church was completed that year in time for Christmas Day mass.…
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1600 North Main Street
Butte Historic District
In 1880, when Joseph Broughton arrived in Walkerville, the booming silver town was a relatively isolated settlement. The Walker brothers—for whom the town is named—had purchased the Alice Mine only four years earlier with the help of their agent, future copper king Marcus Daly. With the…
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Iona Cafe
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The Gagnon Realty Company constructed a single-story building on this site in 1914, adding the second floor before 1916. Mosaic tiles at the entrance proclaim the business of its early tenant, baker Joseph Boulet, who moved his Iona Cafe and Baking Company here from Park Street in 1915. In 1917,…
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Pekin Noodle Parlor
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte’s Chinese community settled on this block in the 1880s. Dwellings, club rooms, laundries, restaurants, and stores selling Chinese goods crowded its thoroughfares and alleyways. This business block is a lone survivor displaying Asian roots. G. E. DeSnell designed the building on speculation…
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126-134 South Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
When this five-storefront corner business was built between 1918 and 1923 for Montana Leather Company owner MacPherson, it stood on the very fringe of respectability. The “female boarding house” that was then immediately next door on Mercury Street was the first in a series of like establishments…
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Push Saloon / Silver Dollar Saloon
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte saloons bragged of their diversity, specialization, and peculiarities. Frenchmen drank white whiskey at the Canadian, and the Scotch were entertained by bagpipes at McGregor’s. Swedes patronized the Scandia Hall and blacks the Silver Tip. Engineers frequented Jerry Clifford’s saloon, “high…
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Tripp & Dragstedt Apartments
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The Butte Miner declared this “the largest apartment house between St. Paul and Spokane” when it opened in 1916. The $80,000 building, constructed by Charles C. Goddard, included forty apartments around a U-shaped plan. Each unit was designed so that the living room faced an exterior wall, thus…
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Scandia Hall
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The Scandinavian Brotherhood, organized at the Silver Bow County courthouse in 1889, endeavored to unify Scandinavians through fellowship, promote high standards of citizenship, and “fulfill a vacancy in the social world.” Butte No. 1, the mother lodge, built this ornately embellished three-story…
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643 South Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
“Ores, mineral and mining rights reserved” stated the title abstract when contractor C. C. Goddard purchased this lot for $1,200 in 1897. Goddard, who lived next door, likely built this two-story brick home, which stood on the lot by 1900. The beautiful curved bay decorating the front façade…
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649 to 651 South Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
John Rafferty constructed this five-family flat between 1901 and 1915. A plasterer by trade, he saw Butte’s building boom firsthand and knew that rental properties were in high demand. The two-story walkup has brick arches over the windows and raised brick corbelling along the parapet. Its most…
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655 and 655 1/2 South Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The small hipped roof cottage to the rear of the lot predates the more elaborate brick residence that stands closest to the street. Built after 1891, the rear residence was home to carpenter Tolman Barnhart in 1898. Saloon keeper and Irish immigrant Stephen Parker lived in and owned the simple…
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668 South Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
South Butte was home to miners, small businessmen, and workers who rented and owned the district’s modest dwellings. This one-story Queen Anne cottage, built circa 1897 with a front entrance and bay, well represents the late-Victorian period housing that characterized the neighborhood. The first…
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826 South Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The fish scale shingles ornamenting the front gable end reveal the Victorian-era roots of this home, built between 1891 and 1900. The front gable and originally a large wraparound porch added room and elegance to the structure’s core: a basic hipped roof worker’s cottage. In 1900, livestock dealer…
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922 South Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Railroads were crucial to facilitate industrial-scale copper mining, and it was South Butte that became the city’s great railway hub. Because a variety of industries located here along with the railroad, South Butte reflects a colorful ethnic and occupational diversity. This picturesque…
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929 South Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
By 1891, South Butte was a flourishing suburb, linked by streetcar to the uptown business district and the mines. Nevertheless, this lot remained empty until after 1900. By 1913, carpenters had constructed a one-story, flat-roofed duplex notable for its prominent porch pediment and its corbelled…
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939 South Main Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Distinctive enough to have its own society column in the Butte Miner, South Butte was less oriented toward the mines than other Butte neighborhoods. In fact, only two people on the 900 block of South Butte worked as miners in 1910. The rest found employment elsewhere: with the railroad, as store…
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Dumas Hotel
Butte National Historic Landmark District
French Canadian brothers Arthur and Joseph Nadeau built this house of prostitution in 1890. Reflecting the architecture of the trade, each room features a door and window so customers could “shop.” In 1900, when Grace McGinnis was madam, the Dumas was in the heart of the red-light district, an area…
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Wah Chong Tai Company Building and Mai Wah Noodle Parlors
Butte National Historic Landmark District
These two buildings are at the heart of what was Butte’s Chinatown. By 1890, nearly 400 Chinese lived and worked in this area. Chinese businesses—physicians, druggists, tailors, laundries, and restaurants—served the population. The Wah Chong Tai Company constructed its building in 1891 to house a…
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St. James Hospital Nurses Dormitory
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Five Sisters of Charity came to Butte from their motherhouse at Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1881 to found St. James Hospital. The sisters opened a school of nursing in 1906. Under Sister Superior Mary Marcella Reilly, this residential dormitory for students and nurses was built in 1917 to meet the…
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St. Patrick's Catholic Church
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte’s early Catholic community built its first parish church, a temporary wooden structure, west of this site in 1879. Father John Dols, the first pastor, arrived in the spring of 1881. The following year the cornerstone for a new church was laid, and formal dedication of St. Patrick’s took place…
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402-412 West Mercury
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Apartments played an integral part in Butte’s residential history as an alternative to the single family home. Housing was scarce in this crowded urban industrial center at the turn of the century. Apartment living offered more privacy and convenience than boarding houses, although some social…
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Freudenstein House
Butte National Historic Landmark District
German immigrants Louis “Lee” and Christina Freudenstein built this handsome two-story Queen Anne style home on three lots across from St. Patrick’s Church in 1889. The low-profile hipped roof and modest entry porch with turned posts reflect the Freudensteins’ taste for restrained architectural…
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405-407 West Mercury
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The gambrel roof of this splendid 1890s bay-fronted duplex readily illustrates how a typical turn-of-the-century architectural plan could be adapted to achieve individual distinction. Unusual details in a botanical motif include leaf-like roof brackets and pink stained glass flowers in the upstairs…
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431 West Mercury
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A round turreted entry with an elaborate porch is the focal point of this Queen Anne style home. Built circa 1890, its prefabricated decorative features were designed to add individuality and elegance to the homes of Butte’s working class. Turned posts, scroll brackets, stained glass transoms, and…
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J. Fred and Sophia Gamer Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Ornamental wooden brackets tucked under wide overhanging eaves, spacious dormers, exposed rafter tails, and a full-length front porch reflect the Craftsman style’s influence on this two-story residence. The style was initially touted as “the ideal home for the lover of the out-of-doors.” Its…
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815-817 West Mercury
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Beautiful brickwork crowns this grand bay-fronted flat, built in 1904. Architectural highlights include a two-story polygonal bay, transomed entries, and arched windows trimmed in rough-faced granite. Originally built as a duplex, Queen Anne style mutli-family housing like this is characteristic of…
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Ellis and Martha Passmore Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Prominent real estate developer Charles Passmore built three homes on this block in 1901, all for family members. Nephew Ellis Passmore, a coal merchant, and his wife Martha lived in this transitional Queen Anne/Colonial Revival style home. Patterned wood shingles decorating the gable end and…
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1135 West Mercury
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Irish immigrant Charles Jenks was the first resident of this elaborate Craftsman style bungalow. Jenks, his wife Lena, and their small daughter moved into the new residence in 1916. As a cashier at the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, Jenks was a skilled accountant, but his ambitions stretched…
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School District #1 Administration Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
William A. O’Brien, architect of the Leonard Apartments and the Kelly and Hennessy mansions, designed this handsome building of brown brick veneer in 1919. In 1920, the offices of District #1 moved from their longtime quarters at Butte High School to the new facility. At that time, Superintendent…
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The Concord
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Two stories and a daylight basement provided ample room for the many lodgers that lived comfortably in this spacious turn-of-the-twentieth-century rooming house. The building’s first owner, boilermaker Carl M. Swanson, lived here with this wife, Tessie, who managed The Concord between 1901 and…
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First Church of Christ, Scientist
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Christian Science was a young religion when believers first gathered in a private Butte home in 1893; according to church teachings, Mary Baker Eddy discovered this system of prayer-based healing in 1866. The congregation grew rapidly, and Butte’s First Church of Christ, Scientist, formally…
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Mountain View Methodist Episcopal Church
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Rev. Hugh Duncan, a circuit-riding minister, led Butte's first Methodist Episcopal services in 1873. A dance hall, and later a school, served the early congregation. The first church built on this prominent corner in 1883 soon became overcrowded. Rev. W. W. Van Orsdel ("Brother…
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Mountain View Church Parsonage
Butte National Historic Landmark District
When the Mountain View Methodist Episcopal Church located on the corner of Quartz and Montana in 1880, a small, narrow frame dwelling on this site served the early pastors. The congregation quickly outgrew its quarters and members broke ground for the present church in 1898. The parsonage underwent…
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210 North Jackson Street
Butte Historic District
Hundreds of hipped-roof cottages like this one—built between 1884 and 1888—line Butte’s streets. The brick walls, front porch, and bay windows (since remodeled) distinguished this house from other simpler, clapboard cottages. In 1890, Pierce Butler, bookkeeper at W. A. Clark & Bros., lived here…
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319 North Montana Street
Butte Historic District
In 1885, dentist Robert Todd and his wife Emma moved into this newly constructed, Italianate style home. Like many early Butte residences, the kitchen was placed at the rear, under a separate, one-story roof to make it easier for bucket brigades to put out kitchen fires. In 1886, the Todds sold to…
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726 North Montana
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Dubbed “the largest, busiest, and richest mining camp in the world today” in an 1885 magazine feature, Butte grew quickly from 3,300 residents in 1880 to over 10,000 in 1890. Among the miners flocking to Butte was Joseph Dillon, who immigrated to the United States from England in the 1861. By 1885,…
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801 North Montana
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Members of the intertwined Sullivan and Hogan families shared this two-story residence as early as 1895. The early, wood-frame home originally had a small porch to the north of the large bay window; the full-length front porch was added between 1901 and 1916. Joseph Hogan was a member of…
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Joseph Richards, Undertaker
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Joseph Richards came to Butte in 1892 and established an undertaking parlor in the Stephens Block on West Park. Victorian-era funerals were customarily conducted from the home of the deceased. It was the undertaker’s job to help the family prepare the body, provide the casket and mourning…
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Emanuel Lutheran Church
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Immigrants to Butte during the mining boom often lived, socialized, and worshipped with fellow nationals. Swedish Lutherans first congregated in 1896, and in 1901 they built a small wooden chapel on the back of this lot. They quickly outgrew the building, which was a mattress factory when it burned…
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Hawley Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Charles and Anna Hawley arrived in Montana Territory before 1873, when Butte was still a silver camp. By 1880 the couple and their four children lived in a log dwelling on this lot. They lived there still in 1900, taking water from their own well and perhaps raising poultry in the two-story chicken…
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William Hardcastle Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Contractors William A. O’Brien and Fergus Kelley were partners from 1893 to 1899. They built this home in 1897, where Fergus Kelley and his family lived until 1900. O’Brien went on to build some of Butte’s landmarks, including the Leonard Apartments and the Con Kelley mansion. By 1901, William and…
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Milwaukee Depot, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
From the 1880s to the 1950s, trains assured Butte’s survival by transporting everything from passengers and mail to ore. This marvelous depot, with its 95-foot clock tower, was constructed in 1916 to serve passenger trains of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, or “Milwaukee Road.” The…
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1116 South Nevada Avenue
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Platted by 1881, Nevada Street was part of the rare Butte neighborhood more oriented toward the railroad (which paralleled Front Street) than toward the mines. The bustling community was home to railroad and warehouse workers, as well as streetcar conductors like Peter Taylor and Albert Dockstader,…
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167 West Pacific
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Outlying settlements like Centerville sprang up so that miners could live near their work. Perched on the slope, Centerville’s steep streets witnessed many a wild winter bobsled ride down the long hill. A clanging bell cleared the way of horse-drawn traffic. Rise and fall of the copper market and…
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Owsley Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A pair of two-story projecting bays, rounded balconies, and slender columns with ornate bracketing give this former hotel a delightful nineteenth-century charm. Built in 1889 by early settler and former Butte mayor William Owsley, the Owsley Block housed the Hoffman Hotel which offered rooms to let…
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Finberg's Furniture Store
Butte National Historic Landmark District
French-Canadian brothers founded the Nadeau Investment Company in the late 1800s and amassed Butte real estate, much of it red-light properties that made the family wealthy. Their holdings at the height of Butte’s tenderloin included the far-famed Mercury Street Dumas Hotel and the Copper Block at…
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Chester Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Businessman Charles Steele financed the $4,500 construction costs of this exceptional commercial block, designed by Butte architect James C. Teague, in 1917. The building is architecturally significant for its striking terra cotta ornamentation and historically important as the founding site of the…
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Ivanhoe Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Lawyers Robert McBride and Patrick Talent originally owned this three-story commercial/residential building designed by architect George De Snell. Built in 1905, it was one of several brick buildings that replaced frame stores, liveries, and brothels formerly occupying the street. Charles Cutler’s…
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Imperial Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The changing character of East Park Street is well documented in the history of this rooming house, built as an investment in 1900 by Abraham Wehl. By this time, Butte’s first red light district, located on the block in the 1870s and early 1880s, had been firmly re-established to the south on…
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135 East Park
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A row of one-story frame shops including a harness maker, two carpenters, a cobbler, a saloon, a bakery, and a millinery filled this block in the 1880s. By 1890, most had been replaced. The present two-story storefront and lodging house replaced a blacksmith shop. A grocery store was the first…
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Curtis Music Hall
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Irish-born lawyer and businessman John H. Curtis constructed this lavish four-story Queen Anne style commercial building in 1892. A skillful yet unknown designer combined gables, turrets, arched and keyhole-shaped windows, carved stone, and decorative metal to produce one of Butte’s most treasured…
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Phoenix Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Symons Department Store suffered two major setbacks before it moved into this longtime location in 1906. Founded by William and Henry Symons and J. E. and H. E. Oppenheimer in 1897, the original store building collapsed in 1898 during remodeling, when a structural beam was removed. Rebuilt in sixty…
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Original City Hall, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
By the early 1880s the railroad linked Butte to the outside world and the town had established itself as a mining camp with a great future. One of the few standing structures from the formative era is this masonry, two-story landmark. Under construction in 1884, it housed the first official city…
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Mayer Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Rapid population growth during the boom years between the 1880s and 1910s necessitated the combination of housing and business space. This three-story masonry building constructed in 1900 on a choice corner lot provided owner Dora Mayer with upper rooms to let and ground-level space for the family…
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Stephens Block
Butte Historic District
Successful Irish immigrant Frank Stephens built this prominent, Queen Anne style retail and boardinghouse block in 1891. Stephens chose the Park and Montana location because the basement was already dug. He wrote a check for $499 for the “hole in the ground” on May 4, 1889. The building’s richly…
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Knights of Columbus, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The Butte chapter of this fraternal organization was founded in 1902 and its present quarters constructed in 1917-18. Architect Wellington Smith designed the three-story Renaissance Revival style building, which features “tapestry” brick from Helena and cast or artificial stone that was hand-carved…
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Thomas Lavell Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Traveling by stagecoach from Quebec, Canadian-born Thomas Lavell arrived in Deer Lodge in 1874 to join his brother, Geoffrey. The two came to Butte the following year and established a sawmill, providing lumber for the town’s first sawn-wood buildings. With characteristic “push and pluck,” Thomas…
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303 West Park
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Historic maps reveal that this magnificent Renaissance Revival style building had rather humble beginnings. From 1888 to 1900, a one-story frame dwelling with a simple open-air porch spanning the front occupied this site. By 1916 the residence had received a second story and a covering of brick…
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Masonic Temple, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The first Masonic Lodge in Butte was chartered October 3, 1876. With a membership of 550 after the turn of the twentieth century, the organization had outgrown its old quarters on West Park. The new temple, completed in 1902, provides an early example of the grandly scaled Beaux-Arts style that…
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Masonic Temple Annex / Fox Theatre, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
An overabundance of copper on the world market all but halted building activity in Uptown Butte during the 1920s. This splendid, long-established theater is one exception, completed in 1923. Following the example of Butte’s most significant twentieth-century buildings, the Masons commissioned the…
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Y.M.C.A.
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The cornerstone was laid in 1917 for this multi-purpose facility, designed by international Y.M.C.A architects. All contracting, however, went to local firms. The $350,000 building opened in 1919, entirely paid for by citizens’ contributions and built by local laborers. It was “in a very real sense…
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625-627 West Park
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Real estate developers platted much of Butte's West Side in 1889, anticipating the building boom that soon followed. Among the many residences constructed in 1890 was this one-story duplex, which owner George E. Clark likely built as an investment property. The residence's most…
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633-639 West Park
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Grocer John L. Carroll chose a prime location to build a four-family flat in 1914. Butte’s finest houses stood two blocks west, and the large, two-story Greek Revival building next door since demolished housed the Woman’s Club. Its 225 active members, all women of “good moral character,” met…
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803 West Park
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The Queen Anne style is beautifully expressed in this fashionable “gay nineties” residence of Arthur H. Mueller, longtime president of the Centennial Brewing Company. Built in 1895, it was also home to Mueller’s in-laws, police court judge James C. Sullivan and his wife, Margaret. Two turrets, a…
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822-824 West Park
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Tucked snugly between its neighbors, this modified Queen Anne style home began as a one-story cottage designed by architect William White and built in July of 1897. Albert Elliot, an electrician for the Montana Electric Company, was an early resident who lived here with several boarders in 1898.…
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823 West Park
Butte National Historic Landmark District
James H. Lynch was a man of many hats. Lumber, livery, mine development, hotel management, and wholesale liquor are but a few of his successful business ventures. A founder of the Silver Bow National Bank, Lynch also owned substantial Butte real estate and served terms as alderman and city council…
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825 West Park
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The gables, porches, and elegant detailing of the Victorian-era homes along this picturesque block compose a neighborhood streetscape reminiscent of San Francisco. This distinguished example, built circa 1893, was once the exact twin of its next door neighbor. Attorney Joseph McCaffery, who owned…
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827 West Park
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Emerson B. Weirick purchased the land to build this home in 1897 for a total of thirty dollars. Construction of the residence began that same year. Preeminent Butte architect W. A. O’Brien designed the home and Fergus Kelley served as contractor. O’Brien and Kelley teamed up on the construction of…
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832 West Park
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Jennie Tallant, a founding member of the Montana Society Daughters of the American Revolution, and her husband, Walter, were early residents of this home. Named first regent of the Silver Bow DAR chapter in 1897, Jennie became the third state regent in 1901. This home was the site of many DAR…
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John M. Orton Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A prominent place at the top of West Park Street emphasizes the importance of this 1916 Craftsman style residence. Its first owner was James M. Orton, one of eight talented brothers who brought music to generations of residents in the Mining City. The Ortons came to Butte in 1879 where the…
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216 East Quartz
Butte National Historic Landmark District
When John Harrington sold this lot in 1888, he reserved the right to mine within twenty feet of the surface—without reinforcing his mine with timbers. Understandably, the purchasers, miner Con Ambrose and his wife Sarah, built a functional, no-frills gable-front-and-wing residence. Deeds like this…
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Quartz Street Fire Station
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A catastrophic fire in 1879 destroyed all evidence of Butte’s first commercial district. Wooden buildings were subsequently outlawed on Main Street, but even so, fire has altered the commercial landscape in every decade from 1879 to the present. This indispensable community fire hall, completed in…
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633 West Quartz
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Carpenter Lewis Morris built this Queen Anne style cottage in 1898 for approximately $300 during Butte’s second building boom. Lap siding, turned porch supports, and decorative glass ornament the home’s basic form, while a hundred-year-old cottonwood shades the yard. Originally, the home’s…
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834 West Quartz
Butte National Historic Landmark District
As its population tripled in the 1890s, Butte began its transformation from a mining camp to a small city. The percentage of married men grew by 10 percent, and local builders worked busily to fulfill the increasing demand for single-family homes. Carpenter John Shackleton constructed several,…
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Harlow Pease House
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Attorney John B. Wellcome, later implicated in the illegal shenanigans orchestrated by William Clark in his bid for the U.S. Senate, probably built this residence before he sold the property to Henry G. Hawes in 1890. This impressive Shingle style home was one of the first in Butte to be set…
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Lynch Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
In 1900, Sixth Ward alderman and assayer Albert G. Sienbenaler lived here, in what was then a one-story residence. The characteristic Queen Anne style home boasted a polygonal bay and open front porch. Some time before 1916, owners added a second story along with new ornamentation, including…
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Galbraith Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A decorative iron fence symbolically separates this one-and-one-half-story brick residence from the street—reflecting the Victorian-era ideal of the home as a sanctuary removed from worldly bustle. Constructed between 1900 and 1908, the residence incorporated other Victorian-era influences as well,…
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St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Butte
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Bishop John Brondel founded St. Joseph’s Parish in 1902 to serve the varied ethnic groups settling on Butte’s south side. Father P. A. Quesnel celebrated the parish’s first Mass in a makeshift public hall. In 1907, a combination parish church and school was built on Delaware Street, which served…
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205 North Washington
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Neoclassical design elements define this substantial two-story brick home built in 1891. Dentils ornament the eaveline, multi-pane windows dominate the symmetrical front façade, and doubled columns provide support for what was once a full-length front porch with a second-story balustrade. A…
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St. Patrick's Convent
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Irish, Cornish, German, Finnish, Italian, and Slavic immigrants poured into the rough mining town of Butte during the 1880s. As the majority of these newcomers were Catholic and many brought their families, St. Patrick’s Parish soon had need of a school. The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, who…
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St. Patrick's Rectory
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Father Peter DeSiere became pastor of St. Patrick’s in 1893 and served the parish well for twenty-five years. At the time of his death in 1918, Butte had achieved its peak population. As St. Patrick’s Parish likewise expanded under Father DeSiere, so did the facilities. In 1899, the present rectory…
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Hooper House
Butte Historic District
Fred and Blanche Hooper bought this Queen Anne cottage about 1901. The arched vergeboard in the gable end and Tuscan porch columns are well-preserved original features. Like many Butte miners, Fred was born in the copper mining district of Cornwall, England. In the 1870s he immigrated to Michigan’s…
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Virginia Apartments
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Excellence of design, thoughtful planning and careful owners have allowed this exceptional apartment building to survive the test of time. Essentially unchanged inside and out, the four-story building on its prominent corner is an excellent example of Butte’s early twentieth century urban…
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Immaculate Conception Church
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The bright white façade of this stunning church, prominently located beneath Big Butte, serves as a beacon proclaiming the heart of Butte’s west side Catholic community. The Immaculate Conception Parish was created from the overflowing St. Patrick and St. Lawrence O’Toole parishes in 1906. The…
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Corby Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A one-story wooden residence built between 1888 and 1890 marked the earliest development of this lot. A brick-veneered Queen Anne style cottage stood in its place by 1916. Smaller than its high style counterparts, the one-story residence still managed to reflect turn-of-the-century fashions with…
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Butte Northern Pacific Station
Butte Historic District
The first railroad to reach Montana was the Union Pacific (UP), which in 1881 established a terminal one mile south of Uptown. After the Northern Pacific (NP) reached Butte in 1890, it shared the UP’s wooden passenger depot. As Butte grew from town to metropolis, its businessmen lobbied for…
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Steven's and Manley Hall
Butte National Historic Landmark District
South Butte and the main business district up the hill grew toward each other as the streetcar line along Utah Street connected the two parts of the city. By the turn of the twentieth century, spaces between the two areas had disappeared and neighborhood proprietors like Thomas Manley and Charles…
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1047 South Wyoming
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Deed records indicate that a Knights of Labor Hall stood here by 1887. Open to both skilled and unskilled workers, the Knights helped found the 1886 Silver Bow Trades and Labor Assembly. The influential organization advocated for an eight-hour day; it also organized against Chinese immigration and…
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Inter Ocean Hotel
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Originally built by Ben Johnson in 1881 as a one-story hotel convenient to Montana Union Railway brakemen, firemen, engineers, and conductors, this residence ballooned in stages with the addition of a basement, upper floors, kitchen, and back rooms. Annie Boland was proprietress in 1885. By 1911,…
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Butte Buick Company/Schumacher Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
In 1910, Butte had only three automobile-related businesses, one of which also repaired bicycles, typewriters, slot machines, and revolvers. By 1918, auto dealers, repair shops, garages, and tire stores numbered over fifty. “No other town in Montana is so well supplied in the automobile trade as is…
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Butte Miner Building - Butte Floral Company
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The publisher of copper king W.A. Clark’s newspaper, the Butte Miner, used this space as a printing office from 1884. In 1906, Butte florist James King partly demolished the older structure and erected this unique two-story building. The year 1906 marked the beginning of a new period of growth…
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Butte Tin Shop
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A visiting journalist wrote in the 1890s that this neighborhood was “like a street leading into hell,” and, in 1910, even the passionate bar-smasher Carry Nation failed to make an impression. Here in the sleepless heart of Butte’s red light district, prostitutes and gamblers conducted their illegal…
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Campana Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Swiss-born Rocco Campana came to Butte in 1886 when it was still a mining camp with a precarious future. Rocco first opened a saloon then, confident of the town’s potential, invested his savings in property on this corner. By 1890, three brothers had joined him. Clemens, Celeste, and Constante…
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Dr. Donald Campbell Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Elaborate and diverse architecture characterizes the homes along this stretch of Broadway today, but during the 1880s rather modest dwellings lined the street. This was one of Butte’s first settled neighborhoods and historic maps indicate that the core of this home predates 1884. By the mid-1890s,…
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Chope Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Paired Ionic columns support a classical one-story porch while the parapet atop the curved two-story bay window evokes the image of a medieval castle. Kitty Paxson and her husband, pharmacist Robert Paxson, lived in the elegant brick residence in 1900. By 1920, Thomas and Anna Chope lived here with…
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Delphine Demordaunt Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Delphine DeMordaunt arrived in Montana in 1877 with her bartender husband Julius, a charming and well-read Civil War veteran, who subscribed to forty-five newspapers a week. After Julius died in 1902, Delphine applied for a war widow’s pension; that, with the money she earned as a dressmaker at…
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F & W Grand Building
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Walter Arnold, architect for the Butte Civic Center, designed this commanding two-story commercial building, which covers a full city block. It replaced four existing businesses and was built to house a branch of the F & W Grand Silver Store, a dry goods emporium. This was the national chain’s…
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William and Mabel Guthrie Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Upscale neighborhoods often placed “restrictive covenants” to assure new buildings did not compromise the ambience. When developer James King sold lots in this new suburb, covenants he set required a twenty-five-foot setback for new homes, which had to cost at least $3,000 to build. This elegant…
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Hannifin House
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Optometrist John L. Hannifin and his wife Mary purchased this turn-of-the-century duplex in 1915. John arrived in Butte around 1895 and formed the Butte Optical Company. In 1909, he married Mary Moran, principal of the Monroe School. As a charter member of the Montana State Optometrists’…
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Henry Jacobs House
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Henry Jacobs, Butte’s first mayor 1879-80, was a native of Baden, Germany. He immigrated to America’s South at the age of nine and to Montana in 1866, where he established the H. Jacobs and Company clothing store. He and his wife, Adele, completed this charming home circa 1879. It was one of…
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Largey Flats
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Patrick A. Largey, Butte’s “fourth copper king,” got his start freighting goods into early-day Virginia City. After he settled in Butte, Largey’s many business interests included founding both the Inter-Mountain newspaper and the State Savings Bank. The Largey family, whose opulent mansion once…
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Mantle Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Prominent politician Lee Mantle had this impressive four-story masonry building constructed during 1892, the year he was elected mayor of Butte. Architect H. M. Patterson designed the commercial-residential structure, which incorporates a wealth of decorative architectural forms popular at the…
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Montana Leather Company
Butte National Historic Landmark District
A log barbershop did business at this location in 1884. By 1891, a frame carpenter’s shop occupied the premises, and at the back was an iron-clad corral serving the Oregon Livery next door. By 1900, the livery stable had become the Montana Concert Hall, the corral had been remodeled into dressing…
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Pleasant Alley "Venus Alley"
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Brick pavement is the only enduring feature of this once-promiscuous alley of national ill repute. By the 1890s, Pleasant Alley and other smaller alleys were the dingy backyards where the less favored women of Butte’s sprawling red light district eked out a living. In halfhearted response to…
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Renick House
Butte National Historic Landmark District
This Victorian-era residence exhibits many Queen Anne details, including an ornate floral pattern in the transom above the windows and a large sunray motif in the gable. The interior boasts three hand-milled fireplaces, oak doors, a stunning white oak staircase, and Tiffany stained-glass windows in…
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James H. Rowe Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Butte real estate developer William V. Lawlor built this elegant home on speculation circa 1891. Hardware store owner Ras Rochester, who lived on this block, purchased the home from Lawlor in 1895. Neither of these early owners lived in the residence, however. James H. Rowe, who was in partnership…
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Scott Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Single copper miners found ample accommodations at this fine boarding house, built in 1897 by the Scott family. The handsome brick building with its full-height opposing bays, transomed windows, bracketed wood cornice, and central name plate illustrates an urban solution to a mining camp problem:…
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Bridget Shea Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Tucked into the steep slope of Butte hill, this wonderfully preserved four-square cottage well represents Butte’s working backbone. Real estate mogul Josiah Beck built the modest home in 1885 over the Silver King Lode. Charles Eltinge, its first owner, was a correspondence clerk for W. A. Clark.…
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Thomas Block
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Radical building improvement on West Park Street during 1913 included the construction of this large retail and business block. The original 1890 Thomas Block had fallen victim to fire the previous year. Butte architect Herman Kemna, who also designed the Phoenix Block across the street, drew the…
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Len Waters Music
Butte National Historic Landmark District
The distinctive façade of this longtime Butte business conceals a building whose varied history extends back to the early 1880s. Originally a grocery warehouse and stationery/variety store, other businesses that operated here include the Montana Music Company 1898 and the Anaconda Standard…
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Orphan Girl Mine
Butte-Anaconda Historic District
From the time it was located in 1875 until it was purchased by Marcus Daly and associates in 1879, ownership of fractional shares in the Orphan Girl Mine changed hands faster than the ante in a poker game. The Orphan Girl eventually operated to a depth of over 3,000 feet. While not a huge producer…
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Reed House
Butte Historic District
Simple four-room worker cottages like this one provided basic accommodations for miners. This well-preserved example, built circa 1890, retains its original footprint, wood windows and doors, and lapped wood siding. It originally included two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and an outhouse near…
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61 Bennett
Butte Historic District
Almost a quarter of the buildings in Walkerville are four-square, hip-roof residences, what housing catalogs called “workingman’s cottages.” Quick and inexpensive to build, they provided homes for Walkerville miners and their families. Roughly a third of those miners emigrated from England, many of…
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Kelly House
Butte Historic District
Beveled lap siding, turned porch supports, and a spindle frieze decorate this functional, working-class residence, built circa 1896. The hipped-roof cottage was home to the Kelly family for over seventy years. Irish miner Cornelius Kelly and his wife Julia owned the home free of mortgage by 1900,…
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923 West Mercury
Butte National Historic Landmark District
In 1896, W. Mead Hanson departed Utah for Butte with his wife, Nellie, and their children. Leaving his job as mail clerk for a short-gauge railroad, the thirty-two-year-old Mead opened a cigar store in the Lewishon Building in the heart of Uptown. By 1900, the family had purchased this home, then a…
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Dr. John D. McGregor Residence
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Newly graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in veterinary surgery, Dr. John D. McGregor arrived in the Mining City in 1889. Copper king Marcus Daly launched the young doctor’s career, hiring him to care for horses on the Butte hill. That began a long association with the Anaconda…
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1200 West Steel Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Copper was a primary component in warships, ammunition casing, and tanks. No wonder Butte’s economy boomed during World War I. The city’s population more than doubled between 1910 and 1918, and real estate developers scrambled to meet the demand for housing, building over 700 residences between…
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The Lillie
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Mrs. Lillie, as many tenants knew her, managed this apartment building from her first-floor unit for nearly fifty years. Architect Marin D. Kern designed the building in 1908 for Lillie and her husband John R. Ross. It was originally two stories with open front porches. John was a power engineer at…
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825 West Mercury Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Wealthy banker Nesbit Rochester bought this bay-fronted brick building as an investment property during the summer of 1906. The building was listed among other “large homes” for sale that summer for $4,500. Nesbit and family lived just a few doors down at 845 West Mercury. Tastefully designed…
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423-425 West Mercury
Butte National Historic Landmark District
Contractor Fergus Kelley spent $4,000 building this handsome two-apartment residence in September 1900. He and wife Katherine, a well-known Butte vocalist and music teacher, lived at number 423 and rented the other half to tenants. In the early 1890s, this stretch of Mercury Street was a rough dirt…
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502 West Park Street
Butte National Historic Landmark District
As Butte boomed from 3,300 people in 1880 to over 20,000 in 1890 and over 45,000 in 1900, rentals remained in great demand. Built before 1891, this two-story brick building, which now houses four units, originally contained eight separate apartments. A large, open front porch (now enclosed) and a…
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Caplice & McCune Store
Butte Historic District
The masonry buildings in the heart of Walkerville reflect the town’s nineteenth-century silver-mining roots. Mining investors, the Walker Brothers of Salt Lake, and future copper king Marcus Daly began developing silver mines here in 1876. Joseph Broughton, another Salt Lake investor, likely built…
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