Dredge mining in the late 1890s brought new life to Virginia City and a dire need for modern office and meeting space. In 1896, town citizens voted to issue bonds to build a multipurpose City Hall with space for the city, law offices, and social…

By 1884, a barbershop and restaurant occupied a one-story frame building on this lot. Fire destroyed much of Main Street in 1886, but owner Frederick Wright quickly rebuilt, again of wood. Saloons, restaurants, and barbershops remained the primary…

Fire swept through this block in 1915 destroying all the wood-frame buildings between Stonewall Hall on the west and the F. R. Merk building on the east. Originally this site was home to a small, wood-frame, false-front building. Hellman & Co.…

A fire swept through this block in January 1888 destroying Phil Conrey’s barbershop on this site. Neighbors to the left, Merkle’s Jewelry Store, Gohn’s Meat Market, and Jacob Dick’s Paint Store also burned down. Gohn rebuilt his decorative…

The town of Three Forks, born to serve as a division point for the Chicago, St. Paul, and Milwaukee Railway, took root in 1908. As the town grew to a sizable settlement of 2,300, the Empire Theatre opened to serve local audiences. Manager David R.…

Shortly after F. J. Brule’s 1906 survey, Walkerville carpenter Ed Reimel built this one-and-one-half-story, brick-veneered home with extended eaves and a hipped roof dormer with flared ends. Victorian elements include beveled glass windows in the…

Built in 1901, Billings’ fourth school had six classrooms and an auditorium. A third-floor gymnasium, the first in the city, was added a year later. By 1906, 340 children attended Garfield School. The homesteading boom, the growth of sugar…

Butte architect H. M. Patterson designed this brick home for attorney John Colter in the 1890s. Semicircular windows in the gables, stone lintels, a prominent portico supported by Tuscan columns, and an inviting front porch ornament the residence.…

John Rafferty constructed this five-family flat between 1901 and 1915. A plasterer by trade, he saw Butte’s building boom firsthand and knew that rental properties were in high demand. The two-story walkup has brick arches over the windows and…

Butte experienced its second mining boom in the teens before World War I. The Miner’s Bank is indicative of the healthy economy during these years when copper rose to a high of twenty cents a pound. On September 1, 1912, fire claimed the Thomas…