Norwegian brothers Theodore and Andrew Reed arrived in Missoula in 1907. The ambitious and experienced carpenters purchased multiple building lots in the Knowles Addition and set to work. They built this one-and-one-half-story gable-front residence in 1908. At the time of its construction, John Mahoney’s lumberyard and millworks stood right across the alley, providing the Reeds easy access to materials, including lumber, window sash, shingles, and doors. Attention to detail—including the use of wide frieze boards, decorative cornice returns, beaded drop siding and a gable-end embellishment of diamond and fish-scale shingles—reflects the brothers’ eye for aesthetics and careful craftsmanship. As was common in the early 1900s, the Reeds placed the kitchen under a separate, one-story roof, increasing the likelihood that firefighters could extinguish a kitchen fire before it spread to the rest of the house. Theodore and his wife Hilda owned the residence into the 1940s. Among their first tenants was Arthur Simerson, manager of the Day Produce Company, who lived here with his wife Mary and their four children in 1909.
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