Joseph Walker, president of the Alice Gold and Silver Mine, platted the streets near his mine to provide convenient housing for mine workers. However, when he sold the lots, he kept the mineral rights. By separating mineral rights from property rights, the mining company retained permission to tunnel beneath area homes, a fact that deterred home owners from investing heavily in their houses. By 1891, a shotgun house stood here, part of a crowded residential block. Saloonkeeper John French purchased the property in 1892, which soon accommodated a one-story hipped-roof cottage. A second small home and an outbuilding with an attached chicken coop stood behind the main house. By 1910, French had left the saloon business to deliver coal and wood by wagon. He and his wife Cassie occupied the front house while brothers Dan and James Caddigan, both miners, lived in the back house. After John died in 1912, Cassie remained in residence until 1921, when she sold the property to Ursulla Hawthorn. During the 1960s, as part of “urban renewal,” the city demolished the rear house and outbuildings.
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