One hundred thirty-seven Missoulians—mostly railroad workers—lived in the Ross House, a large hotel complex that occupied half this block in 1890. Ten years later, a covered walkway still connected the two-story wooden building on this site—home to white day laborers and their families—with the next-door boarding house for Japanese railroad section men. The block lost its large boarding houses between 1902 and 1909, but it retained its working-class character and connection to the railroad. By that year, Northern Pacific engineer Arthur Rogers and his sister Marguerite lived in this wood-framed residence, constructed after the boarding houses were demolished. Frank Pfau, who worked as a packer for the Northern Flour Mill, lived here throughout the 1930s with his wife Katie and their nine children. The hipped-roof house, which boasts a large front gable, is more elaborate than many in the neighborhood. Turned porch supports and crown casing over the gable window are among the home’s Queen Anne style details.
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