726 North Montana

Built: c. 1910
Map

Among the miners flocking to Butte was Joseph Dillon, who immigrated to the United States from England in the 1861. By 1885, he worked at the Lexington (one of the camp’s early silver mines) and lived on “upper Montana street” with his wife Mary and the first of their seven children. The Dillons resided in a one-story wooden residence, adding a large front porch by 1900. Between 1900 and 1916, the family replaced their modest dwelling with this brick-veneered Queen Anne-style two-story home. Decorative brick corbelling along the cornice and a two-story bay window define the exterior. As was common, the Dillons’ grown children lived at home until they married and their wages (earned as a stenographer, wagon driver, and office worker) almost certainly helped pay for the transformation. Joseph died in 1912, but Mary continued to live here until her death in 1936. Her son Eugene and his family occupied the home through the 1940s.

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

Murray Hospital annex/Caroline McGill’s Office

By Richard I. Gibson

58 West Quartz (original address 36 W. Quartz)
Built: 1910
Map

This building was constructed in 1910 as a three-story structure as the nurses’ home and laundry for the Murray Hospital that stood across Quartz Street (see this Butte History article for an image of the hospital, now gone).

Three-story building in 1910.

It was valued at $35,000 in 1910; the fourth floor was added before 1916. Dr. T.J. Murray also lived here, and additional apartments occupied floors 2 and 3; the nurses lived on the 4th floor and the laundry was in the basement. By 1951, the ground floor was still a doctor’s office, and apartments filled all the upper floors.

An attached garage originally occupied the lower level of the 2-story addition to the east, which still stands. The main building is of reinforced concrete construction with brick veneer walls and a copper railing at the top of the third floor, originally a cornice at the top of the building. There was a tunnel beneath Quartz Street connecting the basement laundry to the main hospital across the street; it was “not used” by 1951.

Dr. Thomas J. Murray was born in Tennessee in 1855, and graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1879. He came to Butte in 1885; over time, he served as the Vice-President of the American Medical Association, President of the State Board of Medical Examiners, and President of the Silver Bow Club. He was actively involved in planning and construction of the Silver Bow Club’s new 1906 building. After about 1918, Murray lived at 401 West Granite. He died in 1930.

About 1919, this building was purchased by Dr. Caroline McGill, Montana’s first female physician. She maintained her clinic here and also lived in the building along with the tenants. Among her clients were many of Butte’s Chinese, who often paid for McGill’s services in barter, often with Chinese porcelain. McGill’s collection is now in the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.

McGill (1879-1959) was born in Ohio and grew up in Missouri, earning a doctorate in anatomy at Missouri State University in 1908. She studied medicine in Europe before coming to Butte to work for the Murray Hospital in 1911. She received her M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1916 and came back to Butte, where she practiced until 1956. McGill purchased the 320 Ranch in the Gallatin River Canyon, which is today a guest ranch.

This building’s connection to both Murray and McGill, together with its long history as a medical facility and its unique copper railing, make it a significant historical resource. In 2013 it is used for offices and residences.

Sources: Architectural inventories, Sanborn maps, city directories. Modern photo by Richard I. Gibson; historic photo from Anaconda Standard, Dec. 18, 1910; Murray photo from architectural inventory file at Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives. Web resources: DR. CAROLINE M. McGILL (1879–1959) ; A true pioneer: Caroline McGill, by Rob Chaney (1997) ; Caroline McGill, by Ellen Baumler.

31 E. Copper

By Irene Scheidecker

Built: 1910
Architect: Herman Kemna
Map

This California bungalow is of primary significance in the Butte National Historic Landmark District because it is the only bungalow-style residence still standing in the eastern part of the district. It was the home for many years of Larry Duggan, a prominent Butte undertaker, and his wife Mary.

Butte miners called the deadly rocks that fell in mine tunnels “Duggans.” The reference was to undertaker Lawrence Duggan, who lived in this house from 1910 until his death in 1939. One of the first professionally trained embalmers in Butte, Duggan opened a mortuary at 322 N. Main in 1895. Perhaps he chose the location for its proximity to the Miners Union Hall and the mines. Behind the house was Duggan’s heated sixteen-car garage, where he kept his hearses. Active in Irish fraternal organizations, the Workingman’s Union, and local politics, Duggan served three terms as sheriff during the 1920s. Vigilant against the Ku Klux Klan—whose members he threatened to shoot “like wolves”—Duggan was likely more tolerant of bootleggers and moonshiners. Butte retained its reputation as a wide-open town throughout Prohibition.

The residence was designed by architect Herman Kemna, and cost approximately $6000 to build. An article in the Butte Miner newspaper of July 3, 1910, describes the house thus: "In its many distinctive features lies the secret of the bungalow's attractiveness. Not the least of which is the flower oriel window facing the west, which is deeply recessed in the dining room and gives the bungalow a flavor of the Dutch architecture. There is a pleasing and decidedly novelty in the design of the front windows as well. These open on a great wide, well-shaded porch, the floor of which is of brown paving brick. This, together with the concrete steps, insures a cool porch in the warmest of summer weather."

Resources: Architectural Inventory; Historic plaque by Montana Historical Society; Butte Archives; Butte Miner. Photo by Don Scheidecker. This article is modified slightly from its original publication in the Vernacular Architecture Forum Guidebook, Butte, 2009.

Floor plan. Field work and drawing by Irene Scheidecker.