304 North Main Street (Tuttle Building)

Built: 1892
Builder: J.C. Martin
Map 

1944

Shelley Tuttle began a Butte foundry and machine shop business in 1881. By 1890, the expanded Tuttle Manufacturing and Supply Company had a plant in Anaconda and employed twelve machinists, blacksmiths, molders, and pattern makers. Tuttle supplied parts and machinery for local mining operations, including the immense smelter works of Marcus Daly, who was a major stockholder in Tuttle’s company. In 1892, Tuttle built this business block as an outlet for his foundry products and to house an inventory of hardware goods. Tuttle was also agent for Ingersoll-Sargeant drills, Knowles steam pumps, and a wire rope company.

Butte builder J. C. Martin designed the three-story brick building with graceful brick arches and rusticated stone trim. Besides mining supplies and machinery, Tuttle’s foundry manufactured cast-iron storefronts and architectural ornamentation like the metal brackets that support the cornice displayed here. He also sold home furnishings and Garland stoves. Daly bought out the company in 1896 and changed its name to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company Hardware Department. Daly Bank and Trust owed the building for a time in the early 1900s.  The descendent of Tuttle’s foundry still operates in Anaconda today.

Interior office, 1944

By the 1940s, this was the General Office of the Anaconda Company, housing such offices as the Purchasing Department, Coal Sales, Hardware Dept., Auditing, Insurance, War Bonds and Payroll processing, the Duplicating Department, and Kenwood Realty, a division of the company that managed its rentals and collected mortgage payments on properties sold by the Company.  In 1944, the Anaconda Company leased equipment from the International Business Machine (IBM) Co. at a cost of more than $5,000 a month, enabling them to use more than 10,000,000 “tabulating cards” that could produce paychecks at a rate of 18 per minute in this building, for distribution at the Mines Office (Pay Office) across the street to the south. The cards detailed 80 types of employee pay classifications and 700 contract pay rates.

The Montana Power Co. occupied the building in the 1970s.

More recently, the building has housed social welfare organizations including the Public Housing Authority, Butte Literacy Program, and Homeward Bound Community Health services.

Resources: Historic plaque by Montana Historical Society; architectural inventory; Copper Commando, vol. 2, no. 26, August 18, 1944: Digital Commons at Montana Tech. Historic photos probably by Copper Commando chief photographer Robert I. Nesmith; modern photo by Richard I. Gibson. Text from historic plaque with additions by Linda Albright and Richard Gibson.

Mantle Block

Mantle Block at left.

14-20 West Broadway
Built: 1892
Architect: Henry Patterson
Map
Present Use: Piccadilly Museum of Transportation

Prominent politician Lee Mantle had this impressive four-story masonry building constructed during 1892, the year he was elected mayor of Butte. Architect H. M. Patterson designed the commercial-residential structure, which incorporates a wealth of decorative architectural forms popular at the time. The curved corner turret and the mixing of stone and brick on the façade reflect Patterson’s distinctive eclectic style. Griffins and scrolls on the capitals between the third and fourth floors enhance the lively treatment of the façade. Remodeling in 1916 to accommodate the building’s long-time occupant, the Liberty Theater, somewhat altered the original storefronts, but fragments of decorative plaster within recall this former use.

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

15 West Park (Curtis Music Hall)

Architect: Henry M. Patterson
Built: 1892
Map

Irish-born lawyer and businessman John H. Curtis constructed this lavish four-story Queen Anne style commercial building in 1892. A skillful designer combined gables, turrets, arched and keyhole-shaped windows, carved stone, and decorative metal to produce one of Butte’s most treasured landmarks. This outstanding showpiece of Victorian-era commercial architecture has served various functions including music hall, theater, saloon, and rooming house. While the untouched façade of the upper floors recalls the exuberant 1890s, the ground floor accommodated Gamer’s Confectionary beginning about 1904. Today it is a restaurant of the same name.

Modified from historic plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photos by Richard Gibson.

212 N. Crystal

By Nicole von Gaza

Architect: unknown
Built: c. 1892-93
Map

This stately Queen Anne mansion was built for William J. Alexander, a successful Butte grocer who came to Butte in 1880. The home rests on a granite stone foundation and is wood frame with brick veneer. The only alterations are a relocated third-floor stairway, and an addition on the rear (east) side.

With its hilltop location and dramatic view west down Quartz Street, this prestigious home anchors the Hub Addition, developed during the building boom of the 1890s. Set among less ornate middle-class homes, cottages, boarding houses, and a stone’s throw from the much later Mueller Apartments on Granite Street (1917), this building epitomizes the juxtaposition of class evident throughout Butte.

Alexander’s grocery was at 64 W. Park Street, but the neighborhood of this home was served by the Crystal Street Grocery one block south at Granite Street (northwest corner; closed after a 1973 fire; a vacant lot today) and Finley’s Grocery at Quartz and Jackson Street (southeast corner).

Photos by Richard Gibson

Hamilton Block, 45 West Broadway Street

By Richard I. Gibson

Architect: Henry M. Patterson
Built: 1892
Status: ground floor for lease (2013); upper floors vacant
Map

Built for businessman Patrick J. Hamilton, this 52’x100’ three-story brick structure served typical Butte functions: stores on the first floor and lodgings above. The building replaced a pair of two-story restaurants at the corner of Utah (previous name of Hamilton Street) and Broadway, and a Chinese store at 49 W. Broadway.

The iron store-front columns were cast by Montana Iron Works of Butte, located on the edge of Chinatown at 213-215 South Main when the Hamilton was erected. The tin cornice is one of the longest cornices surviving in Butte. Exterior stone sills, lintels, and keystones are likely Butte granite.

The first floor has been somewhat remodeled. Three businesses—from the corner to the west, a saloon, a store, and a restaurant—originally occupied the Broadway Street front, and the hotel entrance was at the middle of the building’s east front on Hamilton Street (the entry archway survives). The first floor was a café prior to occupancy by the antique store, which moved out in 2012. Upper floors are largely intact, though deteriorating, and retain original woodwork and open skylight. Gold leaf formerly decorated picture molding on the third floor.

Photo by Richard Gibson.