314 West Granite

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: 1884-1885
Map

John G. Hammer, bookkeeper with the John Caplice Company, built this house as a one-story residence before 1885; the early address was 163 W. Granite. Hammer established and became manager of the Butte Sewer-Pipe & Tile Company in 1889, and was successful enough that in 1899 he added the second story to his home. He continued to manage the company and live here until 1912, when he moved to Portland, Oregon where he purchased an $11,000 home at 530 East 17th Street North.

In 1910, Hammer’s daughter Florence and her husband Terry John also lived here. Florence worked as a bookkeeper for the tile company until at least 1920. Another daughter, Alberta, married William Siderfin, manager of W.A. Clark’s interests in Butte. John Hammer was secretary of the Butte Chapter of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in 1887, when W. A. Clark was its President. Hammer was born in Saxony, Germany, about 1849 and died about 1913. Julia, his wife, was prominent in Portland social circles and died there July 1, 1935.

In 1907, Hammer’s brick plant south of Silver Bow Creek was producing 5,500,000 bricks per year. The clay was mined locally (fireclay was mined near Whitehall after 1902), and the main plant was located west of Montana Street, west of the cemeteries south of the creek. The tile shop stood at Oregon and Second Avenue.

In 1928, Mancel (sometimes given as Myrle) Larson was living here. He was a shift boss for the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. As the Great Depression began to take its toll, large houses like this one became boarding houses. Larson began to take in boarders about 1935; in 1937, when he worked at the Emma Mine, his tenants were Maybelle Baird (widow of James), a stenographer for the Montana Service Corp., a dealer in dairy products; Katherine McDaniel (widow of John), a nurse, and her daughter Marie, a student at Butte Business College; Maud Maloney (widow of William); and Helen Curtis (widow of Charles), head of the County Child Welfare Department.  By 1940 all but Baird were still living here, and Walter Thomas; Ray and Lumina Rowan (a salesman and cosmetics representative, respectively); Wendell and Ardell Peck (he was another salesman); and Violet Blecka all called this house their home as well.

Even in 1948, at least nine people lived here: Ernestine and Clifford (ACM mining engineer) Clifton; Alta Spain (public school teacher); Hazel Andrus (cashier, Finlen Hotel); Beatrice and Hal Hennigh (beauty parlor operator and barber); Jean and Ivan Nevans (he was a clerk); and Alyce O'Connor, a nurse at St. James Hospital.

Resources: Architectural inventory; Sanborn Maps; city directories; Brick and Clay Record, Volumes 26-27, June 1907, article by J.P. Rowe, p. 291; Anaconda Standard newspapers; AIME Transactions, 1887; Progressive Men of the State of Montana (1901). Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

318 West Granite

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: 1884-1888
Map

This Italianate home complements the larger, but similar one across the street. 318 West Granite was built between 1884 and 1888, and was home to John Wesley Reed, a dentist with an office on the second floor of the building on the southeast corner of Main and Broadway (parking lot north of BS Café today) in the late 1880s and early 1890s. By 1900 his office was 115 N. Main, the second floor of the Dellinger Block. He continued to live at this house until after 1900, but was not listed in Butte in 1910.

Dr. Reed was born March 27, 1838, in Boone County, Missouri. He graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1877, and practiced a few years in Mexico, Missouri, where he served in various officer positions with the Missouri State Dental Association. Reed came to Butte in 1882, and was the first President of the Montana Dental Association.

The address of this house is sometimes listed as 316.

Resources: Architectural inventory; Sanborn Maps; city directories; Biographies of the founders, prominent early members and ex-presidents of the Missouri State Dental Association, by Burton Thorpe (1909) - source of photo of Reed. House photo by Richard I. Gibson.

310-312 West Granite

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: pre-1884; enlarged 1888-90
Map

The western half of this house (312) was constructed before 1884 as a small home with a Mansard roof and stone basement. It was owned initially by Butte City Attorney Howard B. Smith, who lived here when the address scheme had it as 161 West Granite. The house was doubled in size between 1888 and 1890 by the addition to the east (310) and the filling out of the second floor, making the building into a duplex.

Advertisement from 1910.

The James Lynch family lived at 310 in 1907; Mrs. Lynch was active in the Ladies Aid Society of the Welsh Church. From before 1907 to the late 1920s, 312 was the home of Mary and Hayes Cannon. Hayes was a partner with Archibald McMillan, “Real Estate Etc.,” with offices at 1 West Broadway (the First National Bank building). The Cannons’ daughter, Edna, was married to Frank German in this house Oct. 6, 1908; the ceremony was performed by Pastor E.J. Groeneveld of the First Presbyterian Church. Hayes died about 1927 and Mary continued to live here at least until 1937.

Resources: Architectural inventory; Sanborn Maps; city directories; Anaconda Standard newspapers. McMillan and Cannon ad from 1910 City Directory. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

504 Main Street

By Kathy Koskimaki Carlson

City: Anaconda
Built: 1895
Map 

Intricate, original ornamental metal cresting caps the dome on the octagonal tower of this handsome 1,514-square-foot residence. Its eclectic architecture combines elements of the Queen Anne and French Second Empire styles. A partial Mansard roof at the northeast corner and a front window with unusual stone quoins and brick surrounds reflect the flamboyant tastes of the late Victorian era. The tower retains its original, charming multi-paned cottage window.

Albert MacCallum (MacCallum & Cloutier Grocery) built the residence as a rental property in 1895 and sold it in 1904 to miner, politician, and businessman Dennis Roach. Roach came to Montana from Indiana in 1889. The firm of Roach and Smith offered billiard tables, a confectionery, flowers, fishing tackle, sporting goods, cigars, and sundries. Roach and Smith, one of Anaconda’s longest established businesses, still exists as a wholesale distribution firm. Dennis Roach served as county commissioner and as a representative in the Montana legislature. After Roach’s death in 1925, his widow Maude remained at home here for more than thirty years. The porch was enclosed and an addition built in the 1940s.

The Roach's daughter, Katherine “Kash” Felt, a prominent and well-loved Anaconda matron who served on many local boards, converted the residence into classrooms where she taught kindergarten. She died in 1999 at age 95, and the family retained ownership of the property into the twenty-first century. It had stood vacant for many years until it was purchased in January 2013.  Extensive repairs and restoration are in progress in 2013.

Sources: Historic plaque by Montana Historical Society;  Northwest Tour: Anaconda, Philipsburg, Deer Lodge, Vernacular Architecture Form 30th Annual Meeting, Butte, Montana 2009, Roach House text by Dena Sanford; obituary, Anaconda Leader, July 7, 1999. Photo by Kathy Koskimaki Carlson. Additional “before” photos may be seen here.

309 West Granite

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: pre-1884
Map 

The elegant Mansard roof on this home marks it as French Second Empire style. It was constructed as a two-story duplex home before 1884. In the early 1890s tailor Walfred Hoover lived in the western unit (then addressed 311). He worked for Henry Jonas, a merchant tailor with a shop at 126 North Main, where part of the Hennessy Building stands today.

Patrick Conlon, proprietor of the Arcade Chop House, purchased this house in 1889. It is not clear whether or not he lived here initially, because his address is listed at 518 North Main at least through 1900, but from before 1910 until his death Conlon lived in this house. He died at home here May 17, 1921, after a short illness, at age 83. Conlon was close friends with Marcus Daly, James Murray, John Maguire, and other prominent Butte pioneers.

Patrick Conlon was an Irish patriot and member of the Robert Emmet Literary Association in Butte, a revolutionary organization fighting for Irish independence. He was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1838, and emigrated to the United States in 1853 at age 15. He traveled by steamboat up the Missouri to Ft. Benton, arriving in Montana July 4, 1864, and came to Butte in 1878. He was a founder of the Butte Branch of the Irish National League of America in 1883. Conlon donated $20.00 in 1885 to the Parnell Fund, a response to Charles Parnell’s visit to America promoting Irish home rule. That was at a time when $20 would have bought at lest 40 really good dinners in a high-end restaurant.

The Arcade Chop House was a restaurant on North Main, in existence by 1878 when John Mann was proprietor. Conlon apparently managed it through most of the 1880s, until 1889 when Henry Mueller & Co. took over. Mueller held various offices with the Centennial Brewing Company and was Butte Mayor in 1891. The Arcade Chop House addresses, variously 209 or 269 Main, and 31 North Main, probably reflect the same location, with the changes due to alterations in the address scheme. I believe the location was in the middle of the block between Park and Broadway, on the west side, where the 1891 Avalon Block (former print shop) stands today. That was the 200 block in the 1880s. It is possible that the shop began in a building nearer the corner of Broadway (where the D.A. Davidson building is today) and moved a few doors south by 1889, but in any case the original building or buildings that housed the chop shop are gone today.

This house was restored about 2005. It suffered minor damage in the 2008 fire that destroyed 307 West Granite, next door to the east.

Resources: Architectural inventory; Sanborn Maps; city directories; The Butte Irish, by David Emmons, p. 303; History of Montana 1739-1885, by Michael Leeson (1885); Anaconda Standard, May 17, 1921, obituary. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

308 West Granite

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: 1884-1888
Map 

This Italianate style home was built between 1884 and 1888 for Thomas Fletcher, a bookkeeper with the Clark and Larabie Bank (southwest corner of Broadway and Main).

By 1888, all the houses on the south side of the 300 block of Granite Street had been constructed, and all six survive today.

Resources: Architectural inventory; Sanborn Maps; city directories. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.

305 West Granite

By Richard I. Gibson

Built: by 1884
Map 

Alfred Holmes, manager of the Butte Trading Company, was an early owner and resident here. The house was built by 1884, and the enclosed front porch is a relatively modern addition.

The Butte Trading Company was a hardware business. On August 11, 1890, Shelley Tuttle purchased the stock of goods and merchandise of the Butte Trading Company for $47,000. The Tuttle Company was a foundry, but expanded into other businesses in the 1890s. It was ultimately merged into the Anaconda Company’s foundry, which in turn became the Anaconda Foundry and Fabricating Company, or AFFCO, which exists today.

Following the takeover of Butte Trading by Tuttle, Alfred Holmes served as Tuttle’s manager in the early and mid-1890s when he lived in this house. Tuttle’s main office and store was in the 300 block of North Main at that time.

Resources: Architectural inventory; Sanborn Maps; city directories; AFFCO history. Photo by Richard I. Gibson.