William and Annie Thompson House
Carpenter and lumber dealer William Thompson and his wife Annie built this vernacular style home in 1883. The modest residence disguised William’s prominent status in the business community and reflected his frugal ways. In the 1860s and 1870s, William made a small fortune building many of the first residential and commercial buildings in Virginia City and Helena. He also established at least three sawmills in southwest Montana by 1876. In 1880, as Butte’s mines boomed, he opened the Butte Lumber Yard, supplying wood to the mines and building materials to contractors. He served two terms in the territorial legislature, one term in the first state legislature, and became Butte’s twelfth mayor in 1895. Annie died in 1894, and by 1897, William lived with his son James. This residence was a boardinghouse when William died in 1900. All three of William and Annie’s sons made fortunes in building, mining, and real estate. Their oldest son William B. established the Newmont Mining Company in 1916, which became one of the world’s largest mining companies. To honor his father’s legacy, he donated the land for Thompson Park.
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