An example of Butte’s “bungalow boom,” this Craftsman style home illustrates how the city’s sparsely populated southwestern edges transformed into middle- and upper-class neighborhoods in the 1910s. The bungalow—a popular turn-of-the-twentieth-century choice for single-family homes—reflected middle-class desires for unpretentious design. Butte Commercial Company vice-president Herman Meyer built this investment home in 1913. Despite its humble exterior, the interior includes a brick fireplace, inlaid hardwood floors, and a drive-in basement garage—a novelty for the time. A booming wartime economy and decreasing automobile prices ignited Butte car culture. In 1916, almost half of the block’s houses had garages. By 1917, elite Butte newlyweds Marguerite and Andrew J. Davis Jr. moved in. Andrew, the great-nephew of local banker Andrew J. Davis, clerked at First National Bank. Marguerite volunteered for the Butte Auxiliary for the Rehabilitation of Crippled Children. In 1921, the Davises added a master suite with a walk-in closet and a basement maids’ quarters. They sold the home in 1931, the same year a twenty-two-year-old woman unsuccessfully sued Andrew for $200,000 for allegedly assaulting her on a train. The couple divorced a few years later.
