Levi and Jennie Withee built this charming Craftsman style home circa 1920. Withee was a longtime railroad man who began work as a “shotgun” messenger for the Montana division of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1894. Promotion to express agent brought Withee, his wife Jennie, and their four children to Missoula in 1909. By 1930, the Withees’ son Alfred and daughter Ethel were still at home here and like their father, they were also railroad employees. Illness forced Withee to retire in 1939, but he remained an active Mason. At his death in 1941, he was a board member and longtime secretary of the Masonic Temple. The Withees’ home, likely constructed from pattern book plans, features a prominent full-width wraparound porch. According to the Craftsman style dictum, an open porch was essential for a smooth transition from outdoors to indoors. Ground to ceiling columns emphasize the porch as a focal point while natural materials such as clapboard siding and wooden railings bolster the back-to-nature Craftsman ideal.
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