Filed Under Forsyth

Meredith Residence

Forsyth Residential Historic District

Carpenter Gustav Hoff purchased this lot in 1900, and sometime before 1920 he built this one-story, hipped roof house, likely as an investment. Robert “Shorty” Meredith and his wife Mary bought the residence in 1920 for $2,500. The couple had moved to Forsyth four years earlier; shortly thereafter, Shorty found work at Sickler’s Garage as a mechanic. He is credited with assembling the first twenty-five Ford cars to enter Rosebud County. As was typical for the time, the Merediths paid half the cost of the house up front. Large down payments and five-year mortgages were standard before 1934. That year, the government created the Federal Housing Administration, a New Deal agency that tried to stimulate the economy by aiding potential homebuyers. In 1931, the Merediths hired two men to hand dig a basement and install a rock foundation for $500. Sometime after 1941, they enclosed the front porch to provide much needed room for their large family. Mary raised eight children before her death in 1967. Shorty lived here into the 1980s.

Images

Meredith Residence
Meredith Residence Meredith Residence (PAc 91-51 Forsyth Roll02 F08). Front to side view of the house, facing west to northwest on North 12th Avenue. B&W. Source: Montana State Historic Preservation Office from the Photograph Archives at the Montana Historical Society Creator: Photographer unidentified Date: 1988

Location

440 North 12th Avenue, Forsyth, Montana | Private

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “Meredith Residence,” Historic Montana, accessed March 28, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/1816.