Filed Under Virginia City

Driggs Outbuildings / "Cabbage Patch"

Virginia City National Historic Landmark District

This small L-shaped collection of outbuildings appears in historic photographs dating to the 1860s. Originally owned by Walter Dance and James Stuart among others, E. W. Driggs owned the property by 1869. The small board-and-batten buildings served as barn, coal shed, and outbuilding. Such buildings were essential elements of daily life in the nineteenth century. Zena Hoff, a Virginia City character and Bovey employee, recreated a series of cribs in the buildings, using her own personal experience as a former “girl of the line” and later madam in the famous “Cabbage Patch” in Butte, Montana. The exteriors of these early essential outbuildings are unchanged and thus add significantly to the 1860s Virginia City “image.” As the “Cabbage Patch,” the small grouping gains added significance for its association with the colorful Zena Hoff, and her contribution to “Bovey history.”

Images

The Cabbage Patch/Driggs buildings, Virginia City
The Cabbage Patch/Driggs buildings, Virginia City View looking north at the Cabbage Patch building facades Source: Montana Heritage Commission Creator: Kate Steeley, Montana Heritage Commission Date: Oct 2019

Location

327 West Wallace Street, Virginia City, Montana | Private

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “Driggs Outbuildings / "Cabbage Patch",” Historic Montana, accessed March 29, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/864.