611 South Fourth Street

In the late 1890s, large, elegant homes built for Hamilton’s professional class filled the blocks closest to Main Street. With construction of the Big Ditch irrigation project after 1905, landowners built modest-size homes for workers on lots further south, closer to the Northern Pacific tracks. Louis J. and Annie Watson purchased this lot in 1903 for $100. Louis managed the Anaconda Mining Company store’s hardware department. Annie, a dressmaker, stayed home with their children, Lewis and Dorothy. In 1907, Louis became the purchasing agent for the Bitterroot District Irrigation Company, and in 1909, the couple hired carpenters to build this well-preserved vernacular style residence, possibly as an investment property. Though the simple, square-plan home lacks ornamentation, the clipped-gable roof offers a charming variation on the ubiquitous gable-roof form. The Watsons tried to sell the home in January 1910 but ended up living here from 1910 to 1915. In 1915, they moved to Butte and leased the house for the next twenty-five years. In 1941, Annie (a widow) moved back to the home, where she lived until her death in 1944.

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