In 1879, Jennie Atchison (sister of Montana’s first governor, Joseph Toole) moved from Missouri to Helena with her husband Dr. J. B. Atchison. Dr. Atchison became a prominent Helena physician, active in state medical affairs and in Democratic and Populist politics. In addition to bearing nine children, Jennie speculated in real estate. In 1882, she bought this property just south of her brother's and father’s homes. A two-story frame house stood here, which the Atchisons remodeled before taking up residence in 1889. To match the neighborhood’s growing stature, they covered the front façade with brick and added a one-story addition to the back of the house and a second bay window on the north façade. In 1904 druggist and entrepreneur Henry Parchen, who had moved into a (since destroyed) mansion next door, purchased the residence as a rental. His tenants included George and Stella Hindley, who lived here from 1908 to 1910 with their eight children (ages twenty-six to ten), a servant, and a boarder. George was a Congregational pastor devoted to ministering to men in prison and their families and advocating for prison reform.
Images
