In 1910, George K. Dick—Ravalli County Bank assistant clerk—built this Queen Anne Free Classic style home, which the Ravalli Republic called “one of the best residence properties in Hamilton.” Characteristic features include the projecting gable end, corner boards, and cutaway bay window. Local undertaker John C. Wagner purchased the home in 1915. He soon sold it and his business to John W. Dowling Jr., founder of the Dowling Funeral Home that served Hamilton residents for over a century. An avid sportsman, John led the Hamilton Sportsmen’s Club; his wife Mabel could reportedly “beat [most men] a city block at deer hunting.” In 1926, Dowling bought Marcus Daly’s former in-town mansion and later the Bitter Root Valley Irrigation office to function as his residence and funeral home. John G. Howe, touted as one of the “most successful creamery operators in the west,” purchased the residence in 1927. He managed the Bitter Root Ravalli Dairy Products Company until 1933 when he resigned to pursue his twenty-year dream of opening his own creamery. Howe’s Creamery churned out award-winning cheese, butter, and ice cream for forty-nine years.
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