Better Service Station

By Richard I. Gibson

109 N. Wyoming; 64 E. Granite
Built: 1928
Map

This is the only surviving 1920s gas station in Butte, and one of only a few in Montana. It was originally owned by J.B. Halford and R.P. Morris, who had it built in 1928 at a cost of $3,000, and ran it under the name Better Service Station. This corner held a small pre-1884 house that in 1891 was a carpenter’s shop and upholstery business. By 1916, the corner was a vacant lot, likely vacant until the gas station was built in 1928.

In 2007.

James and Mae Halford lived on the Flats at 1940 Oregon, and in addition to the service station he held a job as a lineman for the Mountain States Telephone Company in 1928. Roy and Sarah Morris lived at 1310 West Gold Street when the gas station opened in 1928.

The station was still operating in 1979, as a Conoco franchise.

Sources: Architectural inventories, Sanborn maps, city directories. Top photo from HAER survey, 1979, by Jet Lowe, from Library of Congress. 2007 photo by Richard I. Gibson.