For centuries, the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons have offered their members support, connections, and community. These benefits spurred Montana settlers to charter Masonic lodges and Orders of the Eastern Star. Ionic Lodge No. 38 (1889), and…

Spurred by the arrival of streetcar service, the South Butte neighborhood developed from east to west between 1890 and 1900. French-Canadian immigrants Peter and Lizzie Huotte owned this Queen Anne style cottage—built circa 1895—from 1898 to 1904.…

Calls for a better Gallatin County jail came in 1886, only five years after the county’s second jail was established in the original courthouse’s basement. A grand jury found that the facility lacked proper ventilation, sewer, and security, as well…

Two years after designing the elegant Napton and Leonard apartments on Granite Street, architect William O’Brien designed this building for widow Mary O’Rourke in 1908. O’Brien, whose clients ranked among Butte’s wealthiest, designed the O’Rourke as…

When David Fratt died in 1912, he left his extensive land and livestock holdings to his wife Kate. Kate sold his cattle company and invested the proceeds, becoming one of Montana’s wealthiest women. A devout Catholic and dedicated philanthropist,…

The block between Oak and Cherry streets was jam-packed with single-family dwellings and boarding houses during Anaconda’s early years. Between 1884 and 1888, Mike and Annie Leonard built their one-story, wood-frame house facing the street, and then…

Jacob T. Gove, a miner and assayer, developed the Bonanza Chief gold mine near Montana City in 1883, netting over $9,000 from three carloads of ore. With his small fortune, he opened an assay office, built the house next door at 229 for his family,…

Anaconda Copper Mining Company carpenter Daniel R. Beck built this small brick building in 1896. He lived in one half and rented out the other half. Beck was an early resident of Anaconda, arriving in 1883 when it was still a hodgepodge of shacks…

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…

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…