Filed Under Butte

134 West Broadway

Butte National Historic Landmark District

A private ground-floor residence with rooms for rent upstairs was the original function of this 1880s two-story building. Its history provides a fascinating glimpse of life in early-day Butte. Maps of 1888 and 1890 show that a frame open-air porch spanned the building’s length at the rear. An unusual walkway connected the porch to a small two-story building, undoubtedly the common privy. The dwelling was home to English miner Joseph Brook, whose wife Clara ran the rooming house at the turn of the twentieth century. By 1910, seven lodgers rented furnished rooms from Mrs. Josie Meyer, who lived here with her husband, two small children, and her mother. Two decades later, the first-floor residence had been divided into two storefronts housing a millinery shop and a corner grocery. Furnished rooms were still available upstairs at least through the 1930s. Although the original brick veneer was replaced circa 1915-1920, the upstairs central entry remains from the 1880s rooming house.

Images

134 West Broadway
134 West Broadway facade Source: Google Streetview Creator: Creator: Google Streetview Image ~ Date: July 2019 Date: July 2019
134 West Broadway
134 West Broadway 134 West Broadway (PAc 91-51 B1 RollCBD13 F36). Front view of the building, facing south near the corner of West Broadway Street and Montana Street. B&W. Source: Montana State Historic Preservation Office from the Photograph Archives at the Montana Historical Society Creator: Photographer unidentified Date: 1985

Location

134 West Broadway Street, Butte, Montana | Private

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “134 West Broadway,” Historic Montana, accessed March 28, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/1880.