Schumacher Building (25 S. Montana)

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: 1919
Map

Anaconda Standard, Nov 2, 1919

In 1919 H.J. Schumacher had this 36x32-foot business block constructed as a showroom and garage for the Buick Motor Company. It replaced two 2-story duplexes on Montana Street and a single-story home on Galena. Arnold & Van House architects designed the building and the construction contractors were Kroffganz & Frank. The roof was erected by Carlson & Manuell, contractors noted for their heavy girder work at the Park Street YMCA and elsewhere. The building featured a second-story dance hall which was promoted as the largest in the state, accommodating 400 people on the dance floor, and including a gallery of tiered seats, cloak rooms, and restrooms for the patrons. The hardwood flooring in the dance hall displays the fact that the building is not quite square, like many uptown Butte buildings where streets don’t quite follow property lines that are sometimes along old mining claim boundaries. The dance floor is supported by huge metal turnbuckles that are exposed in the ceiling of the ground floor.

Over time the building saw various uses. In 1928, Schumacher had a meat store across the street (listed as 20 S. Montana, but there is no such address; his meat market was at 222 East Park in 1910, when he lived with his wife Jennie at 736 S. Wyoming) and lived in the upstairs apartment here (21 S. Montana) and managed the Rosemont Pavilion, as the dance hall was called. The building was still an auto sales and service center in the 1950s, with a wholesale tire dealership on the second floor. More recently the block was home to the Pioneer Club (which owned the building from the 1940s until 2010), City Vac and Sew, and Schulte’s Glass. In 2011 John and Courtney McKee renovated the building and in early 2012 opened Headframe Spirits, a boutique distillery, whose products bear names of Butte mines. Destroying Angel whiskey reflects the fact that the building stands on the western limit of the interesting Destroying Angel claim. The dance hall upstairs continues to be used for events.

Resources: Architectural inventory; Sanborn maps; city directories; Anaconda Standard, Nov 2, 1919. Modern photo by Richard I. Gibson. Text modified from write-up by Gibson in Butte CPR 2011 Dust-to-Dazzle tour guide.

801 North Montana

Built: 1895
Map 

Members of the intertwined Sullivan and Hogan families shared this two-story residence as early as 1895. The early, wood-frame home originally had a small porch to the north of the large bay window; the full-length front porch was added between 1901 and 1916. Joseph Hogan was a member of Montana's first constitutional convention and Montana’s first state mining inspector, but the 1895 city directory listed him and his brothers-in-law, Eugene and Daniel Sullivan, as miners.

When Joseph died in 1900, Daniel was working as county deputy treasurer; his sister Margaret (Joseph's widow) continued to live with him. So did her four children, ages one, three, four, and seven. A teacher before her marriage, Margaret returned to the classroom after Joseph's death. In 1906, eight years before Montana women received the right to vote in general elections, she was elected County Superintendent of Schools, the only elected position women were allowed to hold. Margaret's daughter Maybelle followed in her mother's footsteps, becoming a teacher and then, for almost forty years, the county school superintendent. Maybelle remained in residence until her death in 1970.

Resource: historic plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

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.

118-122 North Montana (The Concord)

Built: 1900
Map 

Two stories and a daylight basement provided ample room for the many lodgers that lived comfortably in this spacious turn-of-the-twentieth-century rooming house. The building’s first owner, boilermaker Carl M. Swanson, lived here with this wife, Tessie, who managed The Concord between 1901 and 1907. Under a tenant proprietor in 1910, census records show forty-one residents of varied backgrounds, ranging from professionals (including a dentist, a newspaper editor, and several business managers) to clerks and The Concord’s domestic employees.

While many of Butte’s residential flats and walkups reflect similar architectural styles, The Concord’s magnificent appearance is unique to the business district. A rough-quarried stone foundation and handsome stone trim contrast sharply with dark red brick, making the building a district highlight. In the 1930s, some of The Concord’s furnished rooms were converted to ten apartments. These, along with nine individual rooms, remain today. The graceful arched entry still welcomes its residents to an elegant interior, where the original oak staircase with turned spindles and skylight above are grandly intact.

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

111 North Montana (School District #1 Administration Building)

Built: 1920
Architect: William O’Brien
Map 

William A. O’Brien, architect of the Leonard Apartments and the Kelly and Hennessy mansions, designed this handsome building of brown brick veneer in 1919. In 1920, the offices of District #1 moved from their longtime quarters at Butte High School to the new facility. At that time, Superintendent W. E. Maddock administered twenty-four schools including the high school, a junior high school, an industrial school, seventeen elementary schools, and four ungraded rural schools. The 311 district employees, 286 of them women, served a total of 19,296 students.

This familiar Butte landmark, significant for its attractive architecture as well as its long service, well represents the solid foundations of Butte’s public school system. Doric columns and an eighteen-light transom frame the entrance, while glazed terra cotta finishes the multi-paned windows, cornice, and parapet. The building’s historic appearance extends to its well-maintained interior, which features the original plaster walls and oak trim.

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

First Church of Christ, Scientist (229 North Montana)

229 N. Montana
Built: 1920
Architect: Walter Arnold
Map

Christian Science was a young religion when believers first gathered in a private Butte home in 1893; according to church teachings, Mary Baker Eddy discovered this system of prayer-based healing in 1866. The congregation grew rapidly, and Butte’s First Church of Christ, Scientist, formally incorporated in 1911. Church members purchased a brick house on this site in 1914 and launched plans to build a new church two years later. In 1920 the congregation broke ground for its new edifice; increasing membership led it to expand the building in 1929.

Prominent Butte architect Walter Arnold designed the Neoclassical building, which cost almost $100,000, all raised locally. The 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago had popularized Neoclassicism just at the moment that Christian Scientists began building permanent houses of worship. Thus, Neoclassicism became the denomination’s style of choice. Modern auditoriums designed for utmost comfort, large foyers to encourage sociability, symmetrical façades, and prominent porticos supported by classical columns were church hallmarks. Neoclassicism’s association with “beauty, harmony, and unity” suited the church’s ideology. The style also asserted permanence, a factor particularly important for the young religion.

This corner was occupied by a large, bay-fronted mansion built before 1884 and expanded by 1888. By 1916, the Christian Science church occupied that house prior to building the church that stands here now.

Source: historic plaque by Montana Historical Society; Sanborn maps. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

Mountain View Methodist Episcopal Church (301 North Montana)

301 North Montana
Built: 1899
Architect: Link and Donovan
Map 

Rev. Hugh Duncan, a circuit-riding minister, led Butte's first Methodist Episcopal services in 1873. A dance hall, and later a school, served the early congregation. W.A. Clark was president of the original board of trustees for the previous church built on this prominent corner in 1883. Clark later became identified with St. John’s Episcopal Church.

As Butte grew, that wood structure soon became overcrowded. Rev. W. W. Van Orsdel ("Brother Van”) helped lay the cornerstone for this grand church July 22, 1899. William L. Donovan and John G. Link were the architects of the $25,000 building. Link rose to prominence and later helped design the wings of Montana's state capitol.

The church, completed in 1900, features a regal central tower with two arched entries. Magnificent stained glass richly embellishes the triple-arched windows on the south, north, and east. The sanctuary's semicircular arrangement and slanted floor, reminiscent of period opera houses, hosted some memorable community events. Famous speakers included social reformer Jacob Riis in 1906 and saloon-smasher Carrie Nation in 1910. Among Butte's eight Methodist churches, Mountain View was the "mine owners' church." Mountain View has hosted multiple choirs over the years, utilizing one of the most spectacular organs in the Pacific Northwest, installed in 1949 at a cost of $12,000.

The stained glass here was very likely manufactured by the Butte Art Glass Works, although the windows are not signed. Their textured surfaces, created by “rough rolling,” are typical of the Butte factory, and were intended to give depth and increased scattering of light. Two more recent windows were made by J&R Lamb Studios of New York.

Resources: Modified from historic plaque by Montana Historical Society; Historic Stained Glass in Selected Houses of Worship, Butte, Montana, published by Butte Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization, 2006, Mountain View Methodist Church, by Richard Gibson; Architectural inventory; Sanborn Maps; city directories. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

Emanuel Lutheran Church

300 South Montana
Built: 1916
Map

Immigrants to Butte during the mining boom often lived, socialized, and worshiped with fellow nationals. Swedish Lutherans first congregated in 1896, and in 1901 they built a small wooden chapel on the back of this lot. They quickly outgrew the building, which was a mattress factory when it burned in 1937. In 1912, the congregation, which kept its early records in Swedish, began construction of this brick church at a cost of $15,000. It was completed and dedicated in 1916.

Modest compared to neighboring St. Mark’s (a German Lutheran church), Emanuel Lutheran’s most prominent feature is its octagonal spire, which rests on a wooden tower ornamented with pinnacles and projecting gables. The steep pitch of the gables, lancet-arched tracery windows, and diagonal buttresses capped with contrasting sandstone trim all mark the church’s design as Gothic Revival. Butte Unity Truth Center, a nondenominational Christian church, purchased the building in 1958 when Emanuel Lutheran followed its congregants to the flats. By then Emanuel Lutheran no longer exclusively served Swedes; its days as an immigrant church—bringing comfort to worshipers far from home—were over. The Unity Center continues to use the building in 2013.

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