Filed Under Butte

Imperial Block

Butte National Historic Landmark District

The changing character of East Park Street is well documented in the history of this rooming house, built as an investment in 1900 by Abraham Wehl. By this time, Butte’s first red light district, located on the block in the 1870s and early 1880s, had been firmly re-established to the south on nearby Galena and Mercury Streets. Handsome business blocks like this one, which replaced dilapidated mining camp buildings, brought some measure of respectability. Records show that residents at the Imperial were primarily miners and others who worked nearby but in 1910 under proprietress Mamie Smith, the fifty residents included nine prostitutes. Prohibition and reforms brought further change to the neighborhood evident by 1920 when Hugh Quinn, a family man with six children, was tenant landlord. His thirty-three roomers were all men predominantly miners or couples with children. Like most rooming houses of the time, second- and third-floor lodgings were arranged around a central skylight with ground-floor commercial space. The cast iron storefront, graceful upper-story arches, and decorative brickwork well represent turn-of-the-century Butte.

Images

Imperial Block
Imperial Block Imperial Block (PAc 91-51 B1 RollCBD09 F27). Front view of the building, facing south on East Park Street near the corner of East Park and South Wyoming Street. Building to the east (left in the photograph) is no longer there and this building has been remodeled to include large storefront windows on the lower level. B&W. Source: Montana State Historic Preservation Office from the Photograph Archives at the Montana Historical Society Creator: Photographer unidentified Date: 1985
Imperial Block
Imperial Block facade Source: Montana Historical Society Creator: Bryan Baldwin Date: August 8, 2022
Imperial Block
Imperial Block Ghost signs Source: Montana Historical Society Creator: Bryan Baldwin Date: August 8, 2022

Location

78-82 East Park Street, Butte, Montana | Private

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “Imperial Block,” Historic Montana, accessed March 29, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/2024.