“Next to mining and smelting, litigation is the chief industry of Butte, and highly profitable to the lawyers,” reported a writer in 1901. One of Butte’s many lawyers, Frank T. McBride arrived in Montana in 1879. He and his wife, Rose, and son, Francis, lived in this two-story Queen Anne from 1896 to 1910. The home’s next owner also engaged in a traditional Butte occupation: saloon owner Frank Walker lived here in 1910 with his wife, Bertha, daughter, Georgia, and two boarders, a salesman and a miner. The height of fashion when it was constructed circa 1890, the house boasts many classic Queen Anne features including multiple bays, a round tower, a single-story front porch, roof cutaways, and an eyebrow dormer. These create the random changes in horizontal and vertical planes for which the style is famous. Decorative trim, elegant stained glass, and contrasting wall textures through the use of fish-scale shingles, brick, and stone complete the residence. The front porch was added before 1900, the attached garage before 1916.
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