Thomas and Beulah Shore Residence
Armed with a degree from the Ontario Business College, Canadian-born Thomas Shore arrived in Miles City in 1896. He and former cowboy Wirt Newcom formed a partnership and opened a department store on Main Street in 1900. The store flourished, selling everything from men’s clothing, phonographs, washing machines, and even hay to ranchers, homesteaders, and city dwellers alike. Shore hired Beulah Chartrand as a store clerk in 1910. She must have made a good impression since the couple married in 1914. Shore purchased this property, in what was then a sparsely populated neighborhood, as a wedding gift. Soon after their marriage, Beulah and Miles City contractor Fred Clearman collaborated to design and construct this beautiful Bungalow style home. Bungalows gained popularity in the early twentieth century based on the idea that “simplicity and artistry could harmonize in one affordable house.” Features such as a simple floor plan without hallways, interior built-in cabinetry and bookcases, and a natural exterior made bungalows affordable and appealing to middle-class home buyers. Stylistic details include clipped gable dormers, ribbons of windows with multi-light upper panes, and flared eaves and exposed rafters with scrolled ends. Landscaping with trees and shrubs reinforced the “back-to-nature” dictum of the Bungalow style. The house was an appropriate symbol of Shore’s continued status and success. In 1923, he bought out Newcom’s interest, reorganized the store to sell clothing, and renamed it Shore’s. This residence remained in the Shore family until 1972.
Images
