By 1908, Montana’s agricultural boom was in full swing, and real estate agents like John Quigley, whose firm offered farms “on 20 years payments,” seemed poised to make a fortune. That year forty-eight-year-old Quigley built this large Colonial Revival style home on the prestigious block of Fourth Avenue North, where he and his wife, Katherine, reared three children. The hip-roofed, clapboard residence, whose symmetrical façade and columned front porch bespoke of propriety and tradition, reflected the fashion of the day. In 1910 the Quigleys owned the home free of mortgage, though two boarders lived with the family to help make ends meet. Post-World War I drought and low commodity prices ended the boom that built this home, and the Quigleys, like other Great Falls residents, felt the effects of the agricultural depression. From 1927 to 1930, John worked first as a laborer and then as a night watchman, and the family once again shared its home—worth $9,000 in 1930—with renters.
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