206-210-212 S. Idaho

210 S. Idaho (left), 212 (right), c. 1984

By Richard I. Gibson
Built: 1884-96
Status: lost (parking lot today)
Map 

210 S. Idaho

The east side of the 200 block of South Idaho Street, across from the old St. James Hospital, once held eight cottages (six of them two-story) and two 4-plexes (single stories plus basements). All are gone today, but three survived into the early 1980s.

206 S. Idaho was a porch-and-gable-roofed cottage begun before 1884, when the original front section stood flush with the sidewalk. A rear extension was added by 1890 and a second addition by 1900 made the house even longer. An early owner was Anthony Formel, who was a clerk at the A.W. Noble drug store (71 E. Park) in 1891-92; in 1893 he was listed as a dentist. His wife Kate ran the saloon at 130 South Main. In 1892, the Fornels sold the property to Victor Strasburger, a clerk at the Herman Strasburger furniture store at 80 West Park. The Strasburger clan lived largely at 124-126 West Granite in the 1890s, and it appears that they purchased this house to use as rental property.

210 S. Idaho was a one-story frame house constructed in 1896 for Mrs. Nellie E. Jones at a cost of $1,000. About 1899 a second was added to the main house and a single-story 8x16 kitchen was added to the rear; another rear addition was also added later. A large stable and wagon shed occupied much of the lot behind 210-212 S. Idaho.

212 S. Idaho was also built for Mrs. Nellie Jones about 1884-88. It stood very near, but not touching, 210 to the north. In contrast to the flat roof on 210, 212 had a sharp gable rooftop.

Resources: Architectural inventories in Butte Archives (sources of photos, which are tiny in the inventories hence the low resolution); Sanborn maps; city directories.

401 North Wyoming

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: 1896
Map

This boarding house at the corner of Copper and Wyoming Streets was built in 1896 at a cost of $4,000. It is a brick-veneered frame two-story flat, with decorative brick corbelling at the cornice.

Mrs. Maggie Shay was the original owner and manager of the house, conveniently located almost at the foot of the Anaconda Road where thousands of men passed every day at shift change time. By 1900, Thomas Curtis was running the boarding house. In 1910, the place was managed by Mrs. Irene Crossan. Peter Hastings, an immigrant from Ireland, came to Butte about 1915 and lived here in 1916. Peter died in the Granite Mountain fire June 8-9, 1917, and was buried in the mass grave in Mountain View Cemetery containing the 66 unidentified bodies from that disaster.

In 1935, Mrs. John O'Neill lived here. See this Butte History post for a story connected to her and her son, a policeman killed in the line of duty.

The address here was 417 N. Wyoming for much of its early history, changing to 401 sometime before 1951. The photo above includes a lot of history in the background: 31 E. Copper at the left edge of the view, with the U.S. Federal Building behind it; the Original Mine headframe; St. Mary's Church beyond the roof of 401; and a little house immediately behind 401, to the left, which was moved from up the Anaconda Road.

Sources: Architectural inventory, Sanborn maps, city directories. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

635 West Granite

Built: 1896
Architect: Henry Patterson
Map 

“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 point: only two residences stood here in 1891, but almost every lot was filled by 1900. Saloon owner Frank Lynch and his wife Fannie were among those to have a home built for them here in the 1890s. Frank worked as a bartender in Butte as early as 1889; by 1896 he and his brother owned their own saloon, and Frank was prosperous enough to hire prominent Butte architect H. M. Patterson to design this one-and-one-half-story, brick-veneered residence.

The charming Queen Anne style home features decorative shingles, multiple bay windows, turned porch supports, and stained glass. The basement contains an outcrop of the granite that underlies all of Butte. In back was a second small house—likely rented to relatives. The project was a small one for Patterson, whose designs include several grand commercial buildings on West Broadway.

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

Anaconda City Hall, 401 East Commercial at Cedar Avenue

City: Anaconda
Architects: Lane & Reber
Built: 1896
Map

The Anaconda City Hall was designed by Lane and Reber, architects, and constructed in the years 1895-96. $34,000 in bonds were voted by the city for the construction of this building, and the contract was given to Jacobson and Company of Anaconda. This three-story brick building consists of three large bays at the west facade with a two-story addition to the east. The Fire Department's Engine House is located at the rear of this structure, while the front portions of the ground and second floors contain a court room, clerk's office and attorney's office.

The original plans for City Hall, prepared by Charles Lane, incorporated a 90-foot semi-enclosed tower housing a four-sided Seth Thomas illuminated clock. A 25-foot bell tower was later added to the east end of the building. Both towers are now removed. The overall building dimensions measure 53' x 102'; the main building measures 50' x 100'. The basement has 9-foot-high ceilings; the first floor, 14-foot ceilings; and the second floor 13-foot ceilings. Local materials, including Anaconda red pressed brick, monument quarry granite and Anaconda copper trim, were used to build this structure. In 1897, the county seat was moved from the town of Deer Lodge to the City Hall building in Anaconda. Deer Lodge County paid the city $2,000 annually to use this facility as the county court house until the present court house was completed in 1900.

The building is occupied in 2013 by the Copper Village Museum & Arts Center. Web site

Sources: Photo by Jet Lowe (HABS/HAER, c. 1979, from Library of Congress; public domain). Text modified from HABS/HAER documentation, Monica Hawley, historian.