Anaconda’s population jumped from approximately 4,000 in 1890 to 7,800 in 1895. As a result, both residential and commercial construction boomed between 1893 and 1898. Hundreds of carpenters, masons, and laborers built 1,376 dwellings between 1895 and 1904. By 1896, this lot held a three-room, hipped-roof cottage facing the street, another small cottage behind it, and a stable bordering the alley. By 1903, the owner had expanded both cottages and remodeled the stable into a two-story home. Between 1900 and 1928, an ever-changing array of laborers, smelter, and railroad workers occupied the homes. Butte, Anaconda, and Pacific Railroad carpenter Walter Peters purchased the property in 1928. He likely removed the backyard houses, added a garage, and remodeled the front of the main house, which he covered with a distinctive “catslide” gable roof. Often found on English Tudor Revival style homes of the 1920s and 1930s, the roof extends lower on one side, almost to the ground, allowing a cat to “slide” off the roof. Walter and his wife Josephine raised two sons here and remained in residence until the late 1940s.
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