Butte National Historic Landmark District

263 Locations | Curated by Historic Montana

Butte was driven to life by the rich mineral resources that lay underground. Gold and silver mining brought the city's population of forty men and five women in 1866 to 14,000 by 1885. However, it was Butte's copper, critical to the electrification of America, which gave Butte a 41 percent share of the world copper market and a population of 40,000 by 1910. The city's mineral wealth drew innovative mining technology, capital from the likes of Hearst and Rockefeller, and at least five railroad lines to exploit the resource. Paramount to the development of Butte's wealth, however, was the need for workers who came to Butte from more than 60 nations and ethnic groups. They worked hard, and often gave their lives to mining, making a significant contribution to the labor history of this country in the process. Severe winters and high temperatures underground required that miners build their homes near the mines, in the shadow of the tall gallows or head frames, contributing to a unique landscape of industrial, residential and commercial buildings. Butte, built on a hillside amidst its own industrial lifeblood, played a critical role in the development of our growing nation.

Butte’s eclectic mix of Queen Anne and Craftsman style homes rapidly spread west from Uptown almost to the city limits by 1916. However, the hilly lots near Big Butte remained empty despite sweeping views and a quiet setting far from the Anselmo Mine yard. In 1917, Butte socialite Laura (Horst)…
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Development of Butte’s West Side neighborhoods coincided with its 1890 to 1892 population boom. Wealthy property owners built large, elegant homes, while developers constructed worker cottages and apartment buildings. A smaller boom, beginning in the 1910s, saw Craftsman style bungalows fill empty…
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The inscription in the corbelled cornice of this two-story residential/commercial block identifies its first owner, William Bowen, and declares its construction date as 1907. By 1909, the Eagle Saloon occupied one of the two storefronts while proprietor John Skubitz lived upstairs with his wife and…
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In 1905, young New England attorney Burton Wheeler stepped off the train at Butte to stretch his legs, lost his money in a poker game, and decided to stay. Courtroom success quickly earned Wheeler a solid reputation. In 1908, Wheeler and his wife, Lulu, purchased this home, built in 1897 by…
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Two years after designing the elegant Napton and Leonard apartments on Granite Street, architect William O’Brien designed this building for widow Mary O’Rourke in 1908. O’Brien, whose clients ranked among Butte’s wealthiest, designed the O’Rourke as a detached addition to the older Merrimac House…
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South Butte’s industrial character developed quickly after 1881 as commercial foundries, warehouses, and mills located close to the railroad tracks. Chinese immigrant Sam Sing ran a laundry business on this corner from 1899 to 1906. In 1910, the Fairmont Creamery Company built this industrial…
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When sisters Marie and Gunelia Brecke opened their first lodging house on North Main Street in 1886, they had to haul water from a nearby well. They soon moved their business to West Broadway and continued to own and manage rooming houses and hotels, even after Marie married—and later…
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Mining engineer Raymond G. Bettenson and his wife Gertrude built this classic, side-gable Craftsman style bungalow between 1910 and 1914. Raymond grew up just a block away in a handsome Queen Anne cottage. His childhood neighborhood still had open space remaining between the School of Mines hill…
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Carriage painter Frank O. Nelson and his wife Elizabeth constructed this richly embellished Queen Anne cottage circa 1897. Key ornamental elements include scalloped shingle siding, scrolled brackets, colored glass windows, turned porch posts, cutout rails, and a spindle frieze. In late 1898, the…
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Anaconda Company draftsman Alfred Longley and his wife Victoria bought this exemplary Craftsman style house, with Prairie style influences, in 1904. Three years later, an article in The Craftsman magazine featured their distinctive home, extolling the virtues of Butte’s emerging Craftsman style…
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George and Elizabeth Clark, immigrants from Cornwall, England, lived in this hipped-roof cottage for thirty years. George arrived in Butte in 1875, while Elizabeth and their three children followed in 1879. By 1890, the Clarks had settled in Centerville, within walking distance of the Mountain…
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Little evidence survives today of the industrial giant that once consumed this neighborhood. By 1889 when the first cable car ran on an impressive trestle to the north above the settlement, the Moulton and Alice mines were fully developed and Walkerville was an industrial hub. By this time,…
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The younger brother of Walkerville merchants Joseph and George Broughton, James lived with George after arriving in the booming silver camp, sometime before 1885. Among his many jobs, James worked as a bartender, clerk, whisky distilling agent, traveling salesman, and for many years was…
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A graceful rounded portico with Ionic columns and a central square bay with French doors highlight the perfect symmetry of this grand Classical Revival style residence of tan brick veneer and red sandstone trim. Elegant details include elaborate brackets, dentils, a round window, and full-width…
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A grand arched entryway topped by a wooden bracketed cornice and ornate iron rail welcomes visitors to the Napton. Because downtown apartment buildings were a hallmark of big cities like New York and Chicago, construction of the Napton Apartments in 1906 contributed to Butte’s image as a booming…
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Elaborate details enhance this residential/commercial building, originally of one story, constructed in 1900. Its upper floors were added circa 1910, and the apartments were among the better uptown lodgings. The masonry building has its dual function in common with its immediate neighbors and, like…
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This block was bustling with businesses circa 1895 when bartender Patrick Cosgrove and his wife Mary built this Queen Anne style cottage to replace an older house on the lot. The porch’s Tuscan columns, fancy fish-scale shingle siding, and leaded-glass front window brought style and civility to the…
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Bishop Brondel created Butte’s second Catholic parish, that of St. Lawrence O’Toole, in 1897. Constructed with $25,000 raised by miners’ subscription on land donated by the Butte and Boston Mining Company, the Gothic Revival style church was completed that year in time for Christmas Day mass.…
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In 1880, when Joseph Broughton arrived in Walkerville, the booming silver town was a relatively isolated settlement. The Walker brothers—for whom the town is named—had purchased the Alice Mine only four years earlier with the help of their agent, future copper king Marcus Daly. With the…
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The Gagnon Realty Company constructed a single-story building on this site in 1914, adding the second floor before 1916. Mosaic tiles at the entrance proclaim the business of its early tenant, baker Joseph Boulet, who moved his Iona Cafe and Baking Company here from Park Street in 1915. In 1917,…
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The Scandinavian Brotherhood, organized at the Silver Bow County courthouse in 1889, endeavored to unify Scandinavians through fellowship, promote high standards of citizenship, and “fulfill a vacancy in the social world.” Butte No. 1, the mother lodge, built this ornately embellished three-story…
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French Canadian brothers Arthur and Joseph Nadeau built this house of prostitution in 1890. Reflecting the architecture of the trade, each room features a door and window so customers could “shop.” In 1900, when Grace McGinnis was madam, the Dumas was in the heart of the red-light district, an area…
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Hundreds of hipped-roof cottages like this one—built between 1884 and 1888—line Butte’s streets. The brick walls, front porch, and bay windows (since remodeled) distinguished this house from other simpler, clapboard cottages. In 1890, Pierce Butler, bookkeeper at W. A. Clark & Bros., lived here…
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In 1885, dentist Robert Todd and his wife Emma moved into this newly constructed, Italianate style home. Like many early Butte residences, the kitchen was placed at the rear, under a separate, one-story roof to make it easier for bucket brigades to put out kitchen fires. In 1886, the Todds sold to…
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Successful Irish immigrant Frank Stephens built this prominent, Queen Anne style retail and boardinghouse block in 1891. Stephens chose the Park and Montana location because the basement was already dug. He wrote a check for $499 for the “hole in the ground” on May 4, 1889. The building’s richly…
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The cornerstone was laid in 1917 for this multi-purpose facility, designed by international Y.M.C.A architects. All contracting, however, went to local firms. The $350,000 building opened in 1919, entirely paid for by citizens’ contributions and built by local laborers. It was “in a very real sense…
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Fred and Blanche Hooper bought this Queen Anne cottage about 1901. The arched vergeboard in the gable end and Tuscan porch columns are well-preserved original features. Like many Butte miners, Fred was born in the copper mining district of Cornwall, England. In the 1870s he immigrated to Michigan’s…
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Patrick A. Largey, Butte’s “fourth copper king,” got his start freighting goods into early-day Virginia City. After he settled in Butte, Largey’s many business interests included founding both the Inter-Mountain newspaper and the State Savings Bank. The Largey family, whose opulent mansion once…
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Single copper miners found ample accommodations at this fine boarding house, built in 1897 by the Scott family. The handsome brick building with its full-height opposing bays, transomed windows, bracketed wood cornice, and central name plate illustrates an urban solution to a mining camp problem:…
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From the time it was located in 1875 until it was purchased by Marcus Daly and associates in 1879, ownership of fractional shares in the Orphan Girl Mine changed hands faster than the ante in a poker game. The Orphan Girl eventually operated to a depth of over 3,000 feet. While not a huge producer…
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Simple four-room worker cottages like this one provided basic accommodations for miners. This well-preserved example, built circa 1890, retains its original footprint, wood windows and doors, and lapped wood siding. It originally included two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and an outhouse near…
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Almost a quarter of the buildings in Walkerville are four-square, hip-roof residences, what housing catalogs called “workingman’s cottages.” Quick and inexpensive to build, they provided homes for Walkerville miners and their families. Roughly a third of those miners emigrated from England, many of…
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Beveled lap siding, turned porch supports, and a spindle frieze decorate this functional, working-class residence, built circa 1896. The hipped-roof cottage was home to the Kelly family for over seventy years. Irish miner Cornelius Kelly and his wife Julia owned the home free of mortgage by 1900,…
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Mrs. Lillie, as many tenants knew her, managed this apartment building from her first-floor unit for nearly fifty years. Architect Marin D. Kern designed the building in 1908 for Lillie and her husband John R. Ross. It was originally two stories with open front porches. John was a power engineer at…
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The masonry buildings in the heart of Walkerville reflect the town’s nineteenth-century silver-mining roots. Mining investors, the Walker Brothers of Salt Lake, and future copper king Marcus Daly began developing silver mines here in 1876. Joseph Broughton, another Salt Lake investor, likely built…
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