116 West Park (Original City Hall)

Built: 1884
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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 (center of photo above; Jail House Coffee Shop). Under construction in 1884, it housed the first official city administrative offices. Included among these were the jail and a courtroom. Although the height of the second-story windows has been reduced, the upper portion of the building appears as it did in the 1880s. Ornate details along the parapet of angled and corbelled brick reveal the excellence of Butte’s early brick masons. After 1890 city offices moved, and the façade was modified to accommodate commercial space. The original stairway at the east end remains intact.

Although this was the first city hall, the jail here was the second city jail. The pre-1884 jail was located on Jackson Street, between Park and Galena. It was the far west edge of town at the time. 

Source: Modified from historic plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

Anaconda City Hall, 401 East Commercial at Cedar Avenue

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

Butte City Hall, 24 E. Broadway

 

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