Fred and Blanche Hooper bought this Queen Anne cottage about 1901. The arched vergeboard in the gable end and Tuscan porch columns are well-preserved original features. Like many Butte miners, Fred was born in the copper mining district of Cornwall, England. In the 1870s he immigrated to Michigan’s Lake Superior mining region. He and wife Blanche moved to Butte in 1887, seeking a “real mining town.” Initially, Fred worked as a hoist operator, but by 1894 the couple had moved to the Hamilton area, near copper magnate Marcus Daly’s Bitterroot Stock Farm. Five years later, they sold their land to Daly for $2,500. It is likely they used that money to buy this home. Back in Butte, Fred worked as a machinist at the Pennsylvania mine before moving, alone, circa 1920, to Arizona to work in the mines. In 1915, the Hoopers’ widowed daughter Mattie and her infant son moved in with Blanche, who died in 1923. Her son Orion, a fireman at Montana Power, lived here with his wife and children until 1927. By 1930, produce salesman James Hanley and wife Josephine were renting the house for $27 a month.
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