Tony’s Tin Shop & Myra Brothel, 108 S. Arizona

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: c. 1914- c. 1925
Status: Vacant, used as museum for historic tours
Map

The oldest section of this building is the front 12 feet of the first floor, built as Tony’s Tin Shop in 1914-15. The shop grew to the east in at least two additions before 1920, when the second floor was added as a small boarding house. By 1925, the upper floor was rented to a couple who lived in the eastern extension of the second floor and who operated the front portion as a brothel according to family history. The family – Tony and Mary (Myra) Cononica, lived in the add-on section east of the first-floor tin shop.

Original elements of the building are preserved because it remains in the same family; the tin shop has never served any other role. The boarding house/brothel upstairs is relatively small, and would have been a fairly upscale brothel, falling somewhere between the high-class parlor houses and low-end shacks called cribs.

Tours of this building are available from Old Butte Historical Adventures.

Photo by Richard Gibson.

Anselmo Mine Yard

By Richard I. Gibson

1887-1959
Status: Used for occasional tours
Map

The Anselmo Mine operated from 1887 to 1959, and is 4,301 feet deep. The mineyard is the most intact of any in Butte, and includes the main hoist engine room, an auxiliary (chippy) hoist building (with a lamp room in the lower level), carpenter shop, timekeeper's offices, hose house, the dry, and a warehouse in addition to the headframe with its tipple and two idler towers. The compressed air tank also survives. Inside, tools and other artifacts are found in place, just as they were when the mine was operating. The Anselmo was an important lead-zinc mine. It also produced silver and copper.

The Anselmo and its mineyard are owned by Butte-Silver Bow County, which is working toward making the mine part of a Regional Heritage Park.

The present Anselmo headframe came from the Black Rock Mine, and was moved to the Anselmo in 1936. The Anselmo yard also held a timber yard that supplied lumber for underground timbers to many mines. The Anselmo was where timbers were treated with arsenic to prevent rotting; the main timber mill was west of Butte, at Rocker. A lengthy strike that shut down most of Butte's mines in 1959 spelled the end of the Anselmo, which did not reopen after that strike.

The Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railroad trail passes near the Anselmo yard. Not far to the west, the trail passes the Desperation Fan Tower, an octagonal concrete structure where bad air exited from the Anselmo mine.

See also this collection of 1980 HABS/HAER photos of the Anselmo.

Resources: A self-guided tour of the mines of Butte, Butte Historical Society; Guide to the Butte-Anaconda Copperway, by Richard Gibson. Photos by Richard Gibson. This article is modified slightly from its original publication in the Vernacular Architecture Forum Guidebook, Butte, 2009.

315 S. Washington

By Mark Reavis
               
Built: 1883
Status: Vacant, undergoing restoration (2013)
Map

Wood frame buildings with a brick veneer began to be constructed in Butte during the late 1870s as a reaction to major urban fires. Brick and the use of formal architectural style are indications of Butte’s transition from a temporary camp to an established city.  This building is an early example of this transition.  It was almost certainly constructed in 1883, the date of the newspapers used to span the gaps in the interior sheathing boards. 

The mansard second story space and arched projecting dormers identify this refined structure as French Second Empire. The presence of separate rooms and connecting hallways on both levels suggest that despite the small size, this building was probably designed and initially used as a small hotel or boarding house. It had a relatively large one-story kitchen at the rear, and is located on a slight rise along what was once an important travelers’ route into Butte along Washington and Idaho Streets. South of this building were several livery stables and associated businesses catering to travelers, and the adjacent property to the north has a barn on the alley. The building is near what was, in 1883, the southern edge of the most densely built-up part of Butte. Nearby, both Idaho Street Alley and Washington Street Alley had a predominance of alley-addressed housing that faced these narrow corridors, though demolition has greatly reduced their numbers in recent decades. A small two-room miner’s cabin with independent doors still exists facing the alley. 

The construction of the boarding house is similar to later construction techniques, but with some variations, the most significant of which is that the wall studs can best be described as 2x3 instead of later 2x4s. The foundation is mortared stone rubble that was built upon by wood plate, 2x3 studs and 1 x plank sheathing on both sides. An air space was left between the sheathing and the bricks, with the bricks periodically anchored to the sheathing with mine spikes. All of the joists are rough cut and were wide spaced, with wide-plank open-joist bottom floors. The gaps in the horizontal sheathing boards were closed with pasted newspapers and finished with a wide muslin fabric tacked over the surface. The second floor was established with a vertical board system placed edge to edge and linked with a horizontal board. The mansard roof line was established with curved rafters that projected over the first-floor soffits. The wood shingles were nailed to the rafters and then directly to the vertical boards of the second story. Full-height double-hung windows were capped with eyebrow-arched dormers on all facades (presumably the west dormer was removed with the addition). The building is capped with a low-profile hip roof draining to all sides and was covered with metal sheet roofing.

The first addition to the boarding house was a second story room that caps the kitchen. Still evident is the half-hip kitchen roof that was covered. The structure that covers the kitchen is much more typical of many of Butte’s buildings, with its use of 2 x 4 and wood lath that received plaster. Milled and planed lumber instead of rough-sawn boards also mark this change in construction. Exterior details were also simplified in this capping room addition. About the turn of last century the Victorian-style front porch was added; the dental brackets of the facia board extend behind and are hidden by the porch addition. The turned columns are common to many homes that were influenced by the Queen Anne decorative style popular at the time (1890s). Note that the columns of the porch do not match: the southeastern corner column is slightly different in design and proportion.

Photos by Richard Gibson. This article is modified slightly from its original publication in the Vernacular Architecture Forum Guidebook, Butte, 2009.

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.

1115 Lewisohn

By Phyllis Hargrave

Built: 1915
Map

New York capitalist Leonard Lewisohn—a principal in both the Boston and Montana and the Butte and Boston mining companies—invested heavily in Butte even though he never lived here. Among his other business ventures, he and business partner Simon Jacobs platted the Waukesha Addition in 1891. The street named for his family was alternately spelled Lewisohn and the more easily remembered Lewishon—sometimes on the same map. Many of the neighborhood’s homes went up between 1900 and 1915, including this one-story bungalow

This Craftsman bungalow was built about 1915 as a one-bedroom house. The present back bedroom was the kitchen, the closet was the pantry, and the present kitchen was the back porch. This back porch had stairs which lead down to the basement. This is a one-story rectangular bungalow residence with a basement apartment, and a dormered gable roof which flares in the front and rear. The original siding was pine lap boards, which were covered over in the early 1970s by white, wide, steel siding and yellow awnings that began to peel. The steel siding was removed in 2009 and cedar lap siding was installed along with replacement knee braces (similar to the original), the rafter tails were re-exposed and the cedar shingle gable ends were restored. Most of the original windows have been replaced but the original sizes were retained. The glass enclosed porch was added in the 1950's; the original porch was open. The house has two rectangular bumpouts, the one on the east with the shed roof is original but the one on the west with the gable roof was probably added in the 1950's when the bathroom was remodeled. The copper shingles on the small side roofs are a tip of the hat to the copper mining heritage of Butte. In its 95 years on Lewisohn, the house has only had five owners. It has been extensively remodeled through the years but retains much of the historic charm.

Daniel R. and Mary A. Crowley built the house in 1915 at a cost of $1,000. Daniel Crowley worked as a clerk at Hennessey’s. In late September 1916 the Crowleys sold the house to attorney William F. Davis and his wife Jennie. The 1920 census showed assayer William T. Kennedy (age 36) renting the home, with his wife Mary (36), daughter Mary (3½) and son William C. (1½).

1115 Lewisohn in background, c. 1930s.

In August 1925 the house was purchased by Frank and Lillian Stanaway. Frank and Lillian (Penhall) were married in Butte July 14, 1923. Lillian was a native of England, daughter of William K. and Annie (Inch) Penhall. Frank started work as an office boy at the Butte Water Company, and eventually became a bookkeeper for the Montana Hardware Department of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. They moved to Billings in 1936.

Daniel and Agnes Callahan owned the house for the next 45 years. He was a pipefitter in various Butte mines and she was an office assistant in doctor's offices (Dr. Donovan, Dr. Morse and Dr. LaPierre) and later worked in the courthouse. Dan Truckle and Phyllis Hargrave, both geologists, bought the house in 1985. Dan died in 2003, and Phyllis is the owner in 2013.

Resources: Architectural inventory prepared by Donna Hartsman, Butte Historical Society, 1984; historic plaque by Montana Historical Society. Photos courtesy Phyllis Hargrave.

St. John’s Episcopal Church, 15 N. Idaho

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: 1881. Restored 1918-21, enlarged 1936.
Map

Faced in Butte granite, this church is the oldest standing church in Butte, predating St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church by one year although the latter is the oldest religious community in town, initiated in 1866 as a mission. St. John’s is closely connected to Copper King W.A. Clark, whose mansion is just a block north. The parish hall and basement gymnasium were added in 1917. For three years after a 1918 fire gutted the interior, services were held in the parish hall, and not until 1931 was the stained-glass window behind the altar restored. That window was executed by Pompeo Bertini, stained-glass artist for the Cathedral of Milan, Italy, and is dedicated to Clark’s daughter Jessie, who died three weeks before her third birthday in 1878. The restoration of the window was paid for by Clark’s son William A., Jr., and Jessie’s twin sister, Catherine. Additional expansions have included enlarging the chancel and adding the chapel in 1936. Most of the stained glass in the side windows was manufactured by J & R Lamb Studios, of New York and New Jersey, and includes mining and patriotic motifs in addition to traditional religious imagery.

Reference: Historic stained glass in selected houses of worship, Butte, Montana, by R.I. Gibson and Irene Scheidecker, published by Butte Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization, 2006. 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.