22 East Quartz

by Linda Albright

Built c. 1915
Map

In 1915, James E. Murphy owned this building.  It was built by Nelson & Pederson to be used as a garage.  The cost of the original construction was $13,500. It had a concrete first floor and hollow tile second, steam heat, electric lights and a wood truss roof.

In 1916 it was Perham & Riley's Garage with a capacity of 44 cars.  From 1918 through 1927, it was known as the Montana Cadillac Company.  In 1928, the name changed to the Quartz Street Garage.  From 1929 through 1934, it was known as the Alemite Quartz Street Garage, and was managed by the Bartsch Brothers.

In 1942,  William H. and Jack H. Harkins opened the Harkins Bottling Company.  The business included making and bottling soda pop; distributing the soda and numerous snacks to businesses around the Butte area.  The business was truly a family-run operation as the brothers’ wives took turns working in the office.  Harkins Wholesale and Bottling Company existed until the early 1980s.

The lot where this building stands held a small frame lodging house ("furnished rooms" - but it was so small, there couldn't have been many rooms) from before 1884 until the middle 1890s. It appears that this was a vacant lot for close to 20 years until the garage was constructed. 

Miner’s Savings Bank & Trust Co. Building

49-55 West Park Street
Built: 1913
Architect: John Shackleton
Map


Butte experienced its second mining boom in the teens before and during World War I. The Miner’s Bank is indicative of the healthy economy during these years when copper rose to a high of twenty cents a pound. The Miners Bank and Trust Company was established in 1907, with David J. Charles the first president. David Charles also owned a men’s furnishings store at 905 E. Front Street, and he lived with his wife Lallie at 701 E. Galena. The second bank president, beginning in February 1931, was A.J. Lochrie, husband of artist Elizabeth Lochrie. In 1935, when the state-chartered bank had deposits of $800,000, it was chartered as Miners National Bank of Butte, the second national bank in Butte at that time, but the third national bank in Butte history (see the comment below).

The Miners Bank was initially quartered in the Thomas Block at 37-47 West Park Street.

On September 1, 1912, fire claimed the original Thomas Block, which housed the Miner’s Savings Bank. Depositors suffered no losses; the bank announced “the vault is standing. The safe is secure and will be opened as soon as it has cooled sufficiently.” The bank immediately planned to build its own building, next door to the Thomas Block, which was also rebuilt. John Shackleton designed and constructed the current building, completed in 1913.  A flat roof, decorative brickwork, large display widows flanking three recessed entries, and rows of windows above the street level reflect the high demand for office and living space. A row of concrete “M”s uniquely embellishes the space between the first and second floors.

The Bank’s long-time janitor, Robert Logan, was a former slave who was internationally known as a bass singer.

The bank occupied a ground floor office until the 1960s; the space was occupied by the Butte Uptown Post Office for years in the 1960s-70s. Upstairs, Lawrence and Katherine Graves were the longtime proprietors of the Miner’s Bank Block Furnished Rooms. In 1930, among their thirty-five lodgers were an architect, an actress, a teacher, miners, and salesmen. Also lodged under the same roof were government prohibition agent Carrol Olson and declared bootlegger Henry Allexis.

New owners in 2014 have established a Butte souvenir and memento company, Buttestuff, in the western part of the building, and the eastern portion, which originally housed the bank, is the location for the Butte Labor History Center that will open in 2015.  

Text modified from Historic Plaque by Montana Historical Society. Additional resources: Montana Standard, May 1. 1935; Anaconda Standard, Sept. 2, 1912. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

803 West Granite

Built: 1901
Map 

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 founded under a different name in 1887 and led for over fifty years. It was one of the United States’ most celebrated industrial bands, and its members, all miners, won first place in competitions across the West.

The two-story residence features an octagonal turret with wide overhanging eaves and a fixed stained glass window, an inviting front porch with double Tuscan column porch supports, and a projecting bay on the east façade. Banker Rupert Nuckolls lived here from 1908 through 1912 with his wife Georgia, their three children, and (after their eldest daughter married), their son-in-law and granddaughter. Georgia Nuckolls was an active clubwoman. Starting in the 1890s, the woman’s club movement provided its members social and intellectual opportunities (Nuckolls, for example was active in the Westside Shakespeare Club) as well as advocating for political reform.

Text from Historic Plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

834 West Quartz

Built: 1897
Map 

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, almost identical cross-gable residences, including two on the 800 block of Broadway and one on this lot.

Built in 1897, the two-story, wood-frame residence was home to Edward and Alice Holden in 1900. Edward worked as telegraph editor for the Butte Miner, a daily newspaper. Ella Heuser and her husband Edward, a drugstore owner, purchased the residence circa 1908, and were likely responsible for building the one-story rear addition. By 1920, the home belonged to Jacob and Cora Pincus. Jacob had a varied career as a jeweler, watchmaker, and tobacco merchant. While he was "industrious," "trustworthy," and one of the city's "most conservative and substantial" businessmen by his own account, others remembered him as a "black sheep… [who] never did anything right." The Pincuses lived here until Jacob's death in 1942.

Text from Historic Plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

815 West Granite

Built: 1897
Map 

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 showcased the Queen Anne style’s complicated textures and angles. Here the steeply pitched roof, cutaway front bay, square turret, fish-scale shingles, stained glass, and elaborate gable ornament all reflect the popular style.

Added between 1900 and 1916, the enclosed porch mirrors a later, simpler aesthetic. The hairpin fence, however, is likely original. Symbolically separating the 1897 residence from the street, the fence signals the Victorian notion that a dwelling should be a sanctuary from the larger world. In 1900, the residence became home—and perhaps sanctuary—to Cyrenus and Martha Smith. Cyrenus was a principal in the Owsley Realty Company and the Phoenix Electric Company. Victorian ideals aside, the house clearly suited them; the couple lived here until their deaths, his in 1938 and hers in 1955.

Text from Historic Plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

833 W. Quartz (Soroptimist House)

Built: c. 1895
Architect: H.M. Patterson
Map

Butte architect H. M. Patterson designed this brick home for attorney John Colter in the 1890s. Semicircular windows in the gables, stone lintels, a prominent portico supported by Tuscan columns, and an inviting front porch ornament the residence. Henry Muntzer, founder of the Butte Brewery, purchased the property in 1901 for his wife Mary and their eight children. Family members lived here into the 1940s, adding the east-side addition before 1916.

Butte’s Soroptimist Club purchased the residence in 1947 for $5,500. The charitable women’s organization campaigned tirelessly for funds to transform the house into a temporary “receiving home for dependent, neglected, abused, or abandoned children.” With volunteer help from Butte union members, the Soroptimists added four new rooms to the rear of the building, repaired the porches, updated the wiring, installed fire escapes, added a third bathroom, carpeted the floors, and built a playground. In its first ten years of operation, the home cared for over 1,700 children. After the Soroptimists moved in 1970, the residence fell into disrepair. It was rescued by Steve and Janet Hadnagy, who spent years restoring it to a single-family home.

Text from Historic Plaque by Montana Historical Society (Martha Kohl). Photo by Richard I. Gibson (Anselmo mine in right background). For more information about the Soroptimist House, see Motherlode, by Janet L. Finn and Ellen Crain (2005).