Anaconda’s business leaders located on the town’s west side beginning in the 1890s. The idyllic neighborhood was far from the smelter and close to commerce on Main and Park streets. Tree-lined sidewalks with street lamps, a large public park, and a new library attracted Anaconda’s upper- and middle-class families. The Kretzer family home, built in 1913, incorporates typical Craftsman elements in its side gable roof with prominent knee braces, an integrated full-width porch, and a gabled dormer. Triple, battered (tapered) porch columns with stepped capitals, arched moldings, and leaded glass windows further distinguish the home’s high-style Craftsman character. German butcher Otto Kretzer and wife Esther owned the Washoe Market, raised five children, and were energetic community boosters. Otto was a charter member of the local Kiwanis Club, and a singer in the Kiwanis Quartet. Esther was active with the Methodist Episcopal Church and Ladies Home Missionary Society. They lost their oldest son to appendicitis in 1920, another son to illness in 1941, and their youngest son, Jack, died a war hero in Japan in 1945. The Kretzers left Third Street after 1940.
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