58-60 West Galena Street (Paumie Block)

Built c. 1890
Present use: Uptown Post Office
Map 

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 run by the Paumies who also lived in the building. Paumie’s was one of Montana's first steam dry-cleaners. Located on the fringe of Butte’s notorious red light district, much of Paumie’s cleaning business was with the prostitutes who worked and lived just to the east.

Cast iron storefront (1890)

The business expanded in 1898 with the addition of the east half of the building. Camille Paumie died in 1899 and Maria continued the business until the 1920s. Paumie’s Parisian Dye Works later had different owners who retained the Paumie name. The original three-story masonry building, with its fine cast-iron storefront (crafted by the Montana Iron Works, of Butte) and metal “eyebrow” lintels, appears much as it did in the late 1890s. A complex of interconnected extensions link this address with 110 S. Dakota.

In 1928, Ludger Michaud, Jr., was President of the Paumie Dye House and dry cleaning establishment. He (or perhaps his father, of the same name; the father died Feb. 24, 1917, age 64, and was a smelterman at the Parrot Smelter for much of his time in Butte) worked there as a cleaner in 1910.

Resources: Modified from historic plaque text by Montana Historical Society; City Directories.  Photos by Richard Gibson.

Twin Sisters (Davis Homes, 845-855 West Granite)

855 (left) and 845 (right) West Granite St.

Andrew Jackson Davis Home (845 West Granite)
Built: 1890-91
Map 

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 with the bank in 1882, became president in 1890, and inherited his uncle’s fortune. Andy and his brother, John E. Davis, built these twin homes in 1891. Andy’s son, the third and youngest A. J. Davis, later lived at 805 W. Broadway. The twin residences share a sidewalk entry and a roof connecting the side porches. These common features were added some time after the original construction. Hardwood floors with inlaid border designs grace four rooms of this home and one room of its twin. A portion of this residence’s third floor was finished to serve as maids’ quarters. The elaborate two-story brick carriage house to the east features an elevator used to move carriages and sleighs to and from second-floor storage, and a groomsman’s apartment spans the front of its upper floor.

Resources: Historical plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

John E. Davis Home (855 West Granite)
Built: 1890-91
Map 

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 with front-facing gables, bay windows, and asymmetrical facades are hallmarks of the Queen Anne style. Among the many decorative elements are fish-scale shingles, elaborate bargeboards on the gable ends, and windows framed in small square lights. Turned posts and balustrades, delicate lattice-like bases, and scrolled brackets which grace the porches are fine examples of Eastlake detailing. Matching stained glass windows on the opposing sides of each home were crafted in a Tiffany glass shop once located in Butte. The original owner, grocer and hardware merchant John Davis, was an amateur painter and taxidermist who filled the home with the fruit of his talents. Following John's untimely death in 1913, his widow lived in the home until the 1940s.

Resources: Historical plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

27 North Excelsior (John Gillie Home)

Built: 1890
Map

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 the hayloft of a barn, a rude beginning to a long and distinguished career. Gillie became known as “dean of Montana mining engineers.” He was so highly regarded that, even though copper kings W. A. Clark and Marcus Daly were at daggers’ points, both employed Gillie as examining engineer; he later served as superintendent of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. In 1895, the Montana legislature appointed Gillie secretary of the commission to establish the Montana School of Mines (now Montana Tech). By 1890, he and his wife, Margaret, settled into this home, which they owned until Gillie’s death in 1941. One of the first residences west of the original townsite, its simple elegance and more rural appearance set this home apart from its later high-styled neighbors.

Resources: Historical plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

614 North Alaska

614 N. Alaska (pink building with parapet at center). Original Mine Headframe in background.

Built: c. 1890
Map

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 wife Mary looked after the boarders. In 1910, Michael Sullivan owned the house. While he listed “own income” as his profession, his wife Mary and a servant must have worked long hours keeping their twelve single miners well fed and housed.

The house is an excellent illustration of 1890s boardinghouse architecture and its kinship with the Queen Anne cottage, a popular form of workers’ housing common to urban areas during the 1890s. Arched windows, turned porch posts, a transomed front door, and decorative metal brackets are elements indicative of the Victorian era. Three finials highlight the metal cornice at the roof line and four interior chimneys are evidence of the period heating system, which kept residents comfortable during brutal Montana winters. This building’s address was originally 616 N. Alaska; by 1916 it was 614.

Resource: information modified slightly from historic plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

227 East Granite

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: c. 1890
Map 

This house, one of few that survive in this part of Granite Street, had a carpenter’s shed along the alley to the rear when it was built about 1890. It has several additions, including a flat-roofed section and a gable-roofed addition on the rear, and the street-level garage is post-1916.

The original address here was 219 E. Granite, changed by 1891 to 227. Directly across the street was the first Butte High School (later Washington Junior High).

The house was owned by Julia Coughlin at least from 1906-1918, and her son William was living here when he apparently committed suicide by drinking cyanide Nov. 7, 1932, next door at 223-225 East Granite (William Rabey’s house in 1932).

Sources: Architectural inventories, Sanborn maps, city directories; Anaconda Standard, Nov. 7, 1932. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

350 East Granite

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: 1890-91
Status: lost
Map 

This porch- and gable-fronted cottage was among the last survivors on East Granite Street, still standing in 1985, but gone today. It was a brick-veneer frame home, with a wrought-iron fence.

One of the earliest renters here was James Burton, a miner from Michigan of Scottish ancestry, and his wife Agnes, from Minnesota of Irish heritage. Burton was a miner in 1900, but in 1901 he was a policeman living here. He moved in 1902 across the street and a few doors west, to 341 E. Granite, adjacent to the Blue Jay mine yard. He continued his community service work in 1902-03 as a pipeman with Hose Company #1 and as a fireman for Hook & Ladder Co. #1.

Mrs. John Anderson lived here in 1908 when she died July 1 of scarlet fever. Toivo and Anna Saari lived in the home in the late 1950s.

The house was present when the satellite view on Google Maps was made, but was gone by the time Google Street View came to Butte about 2009; it was demolished in the spring of 2004 by the Butte Public Works Department.

Sources: Architectural inventories, Sanborn maps, city directories. Top photo from architectural inventory, probably by Mary Murphy. Small photos (before and during demolition) from Butte Public Works Dept. presentation, 2004.

412 West Granite

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: circa 1890
Map

This small home, flanked by much fancier houses on both sides, was built as an investment by Undertaker E.H. Sherman as a brick-veneered one-story house about 1890. Sherman lived at 107 West Quartz at the time, a location today in the County Jail parking lot. Bella Crangle, the long-time stamp clerk in the Butte Post Office, lived here with her family in 1902. In 1908, the second story was added by long-time owners, the Alex Gray family; Alex was a blacksmith. Together, the three adjacent houses constitute an excellent example of the close juxtaposition of diverse housing styles in Butte, even in the relatively upscale near West Side (Hub Neighborhood).

In the late 1920s, Winnie Gray, widow of Alex, lived here with her son Alex Jr. The son worked as a mechanic at the Atlantic Garage, 45 West Galena (former location of Quarry Brewery, 2007-11). The garage was managed by Ernest Schwefel, who lived two blocks west of the Gray family, at 618 W. Granite with his wife Alice and sons Donald, Ernest Jr., and William. Winnie owned and rented the house into the 1970s, when Butte Archivist Irene Rice (Scheidecker) was a tenant.

This property was sold by Butte-Silver Bow County in 2006 under the developer’s packet process for $500. The new owner did major rehabilitation on both the exterior and interior; the house was vacant until 2013 when a new owner acquired it.

Resources: City directories; Sanborn maps; Butte-Silver Bow Developer’s Packet; Architectural Inventory at Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives. Photo by Richard Gibson.

Dumas Brothel

By Richard I. Gibson

45 East Mercury
Built: 1890
Map
Web site
Present use: Museum

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 roughly two blocks square and crowded with saloons and gambling halls. Butte’s district was the second largest in the West, after San Francisco’s Barbary Coast. An estimated 2,500 working girls plied their trade in Butte at the peak of population in the 1910s and 1920s. Prostitutes worked everywhere from squalid alley “cribs” to high class “parlor houses” such as the Dumas. Prostitution, although never legal in Butte, was tolerated as a necessity for miners and “gentlemen” alike. The district faded as years passed, but women at the Dumas serviced customers until 1982.

The last madam, Ruby Garrett, died in Butte in 2012. See also this story connected with Ruby Garrett.

The second-floor hallway is expanded to accommodate a balcony and skylight bringing light to both floors. In 2007-2008, private donations, mostly from John “Curt” Button, allowed Butte Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization to replace the roof and crumbling load-bearing interior masonry. In 2012, new owners began aggressive revitalization and returned the building to use as a viable museum.

More information about the 2007-08 restoration here.

Sources: Historic plaque text by Montana Historical Society; Vernacular Architecture Forum, Butte Conference Guidebook, 2009, p. 107-108, by Richard Gibson.

403-405 West Granite

Built: c. 1890
Map 

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 1888. Jack razed these utilitarian buildings and replaced them with much more attractive housing for himself and a tenant. Jack soon moved on, but over the next decades, the building served several purposes. By 1916, it had been converted to housekeeping rooms to satisfy a greater need for housing as the copper industry boomed.

In the 1920s, physician Neil O’Keefe and dentist John F. Kane had their offices along with Ingersoll-Rand mining machinery at 403. The United Press Association occupied the other side at 405. During the 1930s, the building again provided residence housing, this time for the Hubert Neal and Leonard Backstrom families. Originally clad in brick veneer, the double dwelling has long been divided into four apartments. Residents access the two halves though central doorways opening onto a shared porch.

Text from historic plaque text by Montana Historical Society. Photo by Richard Gibson.

15-19 West Broadway (Mantle / Henderson & Bielenberg Building)

The M&B Block housed Khoury and Co. in 1939.

Built: c. 1890
Map

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 and financier N. J. Bielenberg, the first floor was remodeled in 1891 to accommodate the publishing company. By 1900, Western Union Telegraph occupied the first floor, offices were on the second floor, and the third floor contained a lodging house and a recreation hall. Many of Butte’s unions met in this building. A sign on the building’s east side advertises the Creamery Cafe, a longtime favorite eatery and later tenant. Exceptional interior finishings include a beautiful tin ceiling, an open stairwell with a skylight above, maple floors, and varnished pine woodwork. The grand cast iron, brick, and stone façade with its repetitive arch motif is today a substantial reminder of Butte’s Victorian-era prosperity.

See also these three Butte History blog posts.

Text modified from historic plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photo from Library of Congress (public domain) by Arthur Rothstein, 1939.

410 West Granite

Built: c. 1890
Map

“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 to 1910. The home’s next owner also engaged in a traditional Butte occupation: saloon owner Frank Walker lived here in 1910 with his wife, Bertha, daughter, Georgia, and two boarders, a salesman and a miner. The height of fashion when it was constructed circa 1890, the house boasts many classic Queen Anne features including multiple bays, a round tower, a single-story front porch, roof cutaways, and an eyebrow dormer. These create the random changes in horizontal and vertical planes for which the style is famous. Decorative trim, elegant stained glass, and contrasting wall textures through the use of fish-scale shingles, brick, and stone complete the residence. The front porch was added before 1900, the attached garage before 1916.

From about 1893 to 1896, Charles H. Palmer lived here. He was Superintendent (later, Treasurer) of the Butte & Boston Mining Company. He was also President of the Aetna Savings and Loan Company, with Lee Mantle as Vice President; and Palmer was Vice President of Patrick Largey's State State Savings Bank. Palmer was in partnership with John Coram in various investments; Palmer & Coram were lessees of the Destroying Angel Mine at 35 West Galena Street in 1896, when Palmer lived here at 410 W. Granite. Palmer moved to Boston (1899-1906) but returned to Butte for at least two years, 1907-08, to serve as the general manager of the Davis-Daly Estates Copper Company. During that time, he lived at the Thornton Hotel and the Napton.

Text expanded from historic plaque by Montana Historical Society. Additional resources, City Directories; and a tip from Irene Scheidecker. Photo by Richard Gibson.

Butte City Hall, 24 E. Broadway

 

By Richard I. Gibson
       
Built: 1890. In use: 1890-1971.
Map

Butte’s exploding population – from about 4,000 in 1880 to 23,000 in 1890 – demanded bigger and better buildings for everything. This is Butte’s second city hall, replacing the 1884 structure at 116 W. Park (now the Jail House Coffee Shop). Mayor Henry Mueller, also an officer of the Centennial Brewery, oversaw the construction of this building. The jail was known as the “Butte Bastille” for its dungeon-like character. No temperature regulation meant that the inmates suffered temperatures ranging from 100°F and more adjacent to the building’s boiler behind the drunk tank, to chilly discomfort in the more distant cells. North of the furthest cells (“dungeon” and “interrogation cell”) police offices occupied the sub-sidewalk space on the north side of the city hall, visible through the hole in the Interrogation Cell. The ceilings in those offices, and in the dungeon, consist of ranks of bricks laid on a metal lattice frame.

Mortared unshaped granite boulders comprise much of the foundation, best seen at the corner of the long hallway along the cells.

The main level of the city hall originally held the fire department. The large arches adjacent to the front entrance on Broadway Street were doors through which horse-drawn fire wagons passed in response to calls. By 1900, an additional dedicated fire station had been built (today’s Archives building, 17 W. Quartz) to help attack the all-too-frequent fires that plagued the city despite a 29-page building ordinance enacted in 1893 that mandated brick and stone construction for most business blocks. The clock tower has been lowered by one section from its original height.

The jail was in use until 1971, when a suspicious (murder? suicide?) death by hanging at the shower stall compelled a decision to begin using the county jail (north of the county courthouse; currently the sheriff’s department offices), which was just 20 years younger but much more modern. The upper floors of the city hall were abandoned in 1977 when the governments of the city and county were merged and all operations moved to the county courthouse on Granite Street. The adaptive reuse of the building as a doctor’s office dates to 1999.

Photo by Richard Gibson.