Filed Under Helena

Piercy Boarding House / Cornell Apartments

Helena Historic District

The stylish Courthouse Square neighborhood prospered in the 1880s, as evidenced by this fashionable two-and-one-half-story boardinghouse built by wealthy rancher William C. Child. Between 1888 and 1890, this splendid building displaced an earlier, more modest brick dwelling. A granite-trimmed sandstone façade, projecting bays, metal-faced mansard roof, and colorful stained glass transoms exuberantly express the favored eclecticism of the Victorian era. The Child family maintained the business until circa 1900, when the wife of miner James Piercy, whose large family resided here, was “boarding house keeper.” In 1914, the Piercys moved their residence/rooming house next door and this building became the Cornell Apartments.

Images

Piercy Boarding House/Cornell Apartments
Piercy Boarding House/Cornell Apartments Piercy Boarding House/Cornell Apartments. Front view of the building, facing north on 5th Avenue near the intersection of 5th and North Ewing with the Joseph K. Toole Mansion bordering the building to the left in the photograph. Digital photograph. Source: Montana Historical Society Creator: Michael Connolly Date: Jan. 2020

Location

300-312 5th Avenue, Helena, Montana | Private

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “Piercy Boarding House / Cornell Apartments,” Historic Montana, accessed March 28, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/734.