Though altered over many years to look like three separate buildings, this early 1900s brick commercial block is actually one large building (extending to the corner of Oak). Originally divided by interior partition walls, the building hosted three…

W. H. Dunnigan and partners opened the Purity Dairy and the Purity Apartments (upstairs) in this brick commercial building in 1916. Purity was the first dairy processing plant in Anaconda to pasteurize raw milk brought in from area farmers. French…

A fleet of twelve hundred masons and carpenters flocked to Warm Springs Creek in 1883 to build Marcus Daly’s Anaconda Company smelter. Daly hired Welsh masonry contractor John “Jack” W. Cornelius to oversee the construction process for his enormous…

Wholesale liquor dealer John V. Collins commissioned this handsome Renaissance Revival style commercial and boardinghouse building in 1897. The store was home to several saloons during its first twenty years. Workers at Marcus Daly’s Anaconda…

Benjamin Mahan, pioneer businessman and respected Deer Lodge County Commissioner, opened his first paint and wallpaper store on Main Street in 1885. He later moved to this one-story brick building in April 1916. The store’s distinctive buff-colored…

Prosperous Deer Lodge Valley rancher George Parrot invested $13,000 to build the Parrot Block in 1896. The first story of this well-appointed Queen Anne style commercial and boardinghouse building originally featured tall, plate-glass display…

After building the St. Jean Block next door in 1893, Dr. Felix St. Jean again hired respected Anaconda mason John Cosgrove to build this annex building in 1897. Cosgrove, an old friend of Marcus Daly’s, also built the foundations of the Upper Works…

Until the arrival of large discount grocery chains after World War II, numerous grocery businesses thrived in Anaconda. Some merchants sold a vast array of goods, and others specialized in dry goods, produce, or meat. Many groceries catered to…

After attending Fisk University in Tennessee, Lee Pleasant Driver enlisted in the Twenty-fifth U.S. Colored Infantry in 1888. The twenty-five-year-old private, who soon advanced to corporal, served at Forts Keogh (Miles City) and Missoula. He was…

Contractor A. M. Walker constructed this simple one-story brick commercial block for department store owner S. C. Adams in 1902. Though Adams did not pay to embellish the exterior of the building, he did spend lavishly on advertising and events. His…