Outlying settlements like Centerville sprang up so that miners could live near their work. Perched on the slope, Centerville’s steep streets witnessed many a wild winter bobsled ride down the long hill. A clanging bell cleared the way of horse-drawn traffic. Rise and fall of the copper market and increased automobile use reduced Centerville’s once substantial population. Little remains today along the streets where small businesses and lodge halls catered to the working class and small cottages housed families dependent on mining. This modest corner residence was built between 1890 and 1891. By 1895, Welsh miner Stephen H. Northey, his wife Margaret, and their two children were in residence. Like 40 percent of Centerville’s nineteenth-century population, both Stephen and Margaret were born in England. Stephen Northey had been diagnosed with tuberculosis when he died suddenly in 1909. At 45, he was a 25-year veteran, and victim, of Butte’s mines. The two-story, gable-front residence is typical of Centerville’s remaining historic dwellings that stand today in the shadow of the steel headframes.
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