Twenty-year-old Charles E. Johnson came to Missoula with the Northern Pacific as a dining car employee. He worked his way up to conductor, and after a seven-year career, changed professions. Putting his love of horses to use, he opened a livery business in 1893. Johnson did well, and before 1900, he, his wife Edith, and their three children settled into this transitional Queen Anne style residence. The livery closed in 1908 and Johnson briefly operated a cement contracting business. Then for thirty years he was secretary to the local Elks’ Lodge. When Edith died in 1936, the Missoulian described her as a woman of high courage and forward thinking. “Pops” Johnson sold the property in 1941. He died at ninety-five in 1959, outliving all his children. The Johnsons’ longtime home is a splendid example of the shift away from flowery Victorian ornamentation to the simpler Colonial Revival style. Its wraparound porch, multiple bay windows, irregular plan, and fish-scale shingles are classic Queen Anne style features, but the clapboard siding, corner boards, and simple window frames signal newer trends. Restoration of the home began in 1996.
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