Longtime Helena saloon proprietor Michael Byrns, his wife Emma, and their daughter Mary were the first residents of this early West Side home, built circa 1878. Emma’s “uniform kindness and lovely traits of character” touched so many that the entire community mourned her death in 1895. After 1906, widow Ann Sanford and her extended family lived in the home. Ann and Thomas Sanford came to the Prickly Pear Valley in 1869, where Thomas and his brother, William, established a ranch. Thomas died in 1903 and William purchased this in-town residence for his sister-in-law. Ann was at home here until her death at 95 in 1925. This historic home, perched atop a ridge and fronted at street level by a stone retaining wall, appears much as it did in the late 1870s when little Mary Byrns played in the yard. Square columns, a side bay, and triangular window pediments provide simple, charming adornment characteristic of Helena’s early architecture. Inside, an unusual curved staircase adds surprising sophistication to the traditional floorplan.
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