Development of Butte’s West Side neighborhoods coincided with its 1890 to 1892 population boom. Wealthy property owners built large, elegant homes, while developers constructed worker cottages and apartment buildings. A smaller boom, beginning in the 1910s, saw Craftsman style bungalows fill empty lots, further defining the West Side’s diverse social and architectural character. This block—somewhat isolated by Big Butte’s hillside to the west and train tracks on the east—remained undeveloped until 1917. That year, contractor Chris Christiansen built this classic Craftsman style bungalow for house painter Nathan E. Hanson. The home’s full-width front porch with tapered columns, wide overhanging eaves, and gabled dormer are stylistic hallmarks. Nathan and his wife Beatrice lived here with their two children until 1927. Surrounded by open space, they enjoyed sweeping views of Butte. Their house and two others built around the same time, were the only homes on the block until the late 1950s.
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