Speculator Mine hoist engineer David E. Parry purchased this two-story hipped roof house in 1905. He lived here with his wife Emma, daughter Juanita, and widowed mother Elizabeth. The modest miner’s cottage—likely built circa 1883—originally rested on a raised foundation close to the street. Soon after he bought it, David moved the house backwards, raised it to add a full first story, and added a two-story front porch with turned posts. David came to Butte from Wisconsin in 1883 with his Welsh parents. He began working as a hoist engineer at the Monitor Mine, which his father helped locate in 1886. David and family moved away in 1911, but his mother stayed and rented rooms to boarders for two more decades. After she died in 1934, David sold the home to pharmacist Romeo Campeau and his wife Clara. They shared the house with their daughter Corinne, her husband Harold Von Murrell, and son Raymond. Harold worked various day jobs, and at night he conducted the Von Murrell Orchestra, a local big band, until he died in 1968.
Images
