A log barbershop did business at this location in 1884. By 1891, a frame carpenter’s shop occupied the premises, and at the back was an iron-clad corral serving the Oregon Livery next door. By 1900, the livery stable had become the Montana Concert Hall, the corral had been remodeled into dressing rooms, and a saloon had replaced the carpenter’s shop. This building was constructed circa 1908, likely incorporating the frame saloon into the new brick building. A wooden porch accessed by a central doorway once spanned the front façade, serving residents of the second-floor rooming house. Although the rooming house backed up to Butte’s most notorious red light alley, it was a respectable business. In 1920, tenant landlady Mary Tallon lived upstairs with her three children and eight lodgers. Downstairs the MacPherson family, owners of this building and the one next door, ran the Montana Leather Company, which specialized in wholesale leather, shoe machinery, shoe findings, and repairs. The MacPhersons operated their business here from 1918 through the 1980s.
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