West Side Historic District, Anaconda

Marcus Daly watched with pride as Anaconda steadily gained momentum after its founding in 1883. While Daly’s social and political ambition was reflected in the elegant downtown Montana Hotel, Anaconda Company managers, city officials, and other affluent residents built homes adjacent to and west of Main Street. The West Side encompasses a majority of the city’s original townsite and includes some of Anaconda’s most elaborate residences as well as impressive public buildings and modest dwellings. The buildings of the West Side’s eclectic streetscapes, diverse in both style and function, feature Victorian-era spindling, scrollwork, and leaded glass as well as early twentieth-century Craftsman-style detailing. Cast-iron street lamps, locally produced by the Tuttle Manufacturing and Supply Company, visually unified the district by 1920. Judge George B. Winston was the first to build a fine home on the West Side in 1888. By 1890, expensive architect-designed homes were scattered throughout the neighborhood. Designs of local and regional architects include those of Joseph Smith, Martin Kern, Fred Willson, and Herman Kemna. Prominent early residents included Anaconda Standard editor John Durston, county attorney John Boarman, Superintendent of Schools W. K. Dwyer, metallurgist Frederick Laist, and Marcus Daly’s two sisters. The City Common (Kennedy Common), with its distinctive bandstand and winter skating rink, anchors the northeast corner of the district. The Deer Lodge County Courthouse, Hearst Free Library, Washoe Theatre, Brentwood Apartments, and three historic churches are integral to the civic, educational, and social tapestry of a planned community that took root in the dreams of its founder, Marcus Daly.

This valley known by Native Americans as “Lodge of the White Tailed Deer” officially became Deer Lodge County when this area was part of the Territory of Idaho. After the creation of the Territory of Montana in 1864, the first territorial legislature named Deer Lodge one of Montana’s original nine…
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Anaconda’s elite began to build homes on the West Side in the 1890s, and this Queen Anne style mansion was one of the first to grace upper Locust Street. Built in 1894 for Fred Clark, librarian at the Hearst Free Public Library, the elegant residence boasted all the latest conveniences including…
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Mass production of decorative details allowed even modest houses to partake of architectural fashion. In the case of this one-and-one-half-story home, stained glass, gingerbread and latticework, turned porch supports, and fish-scale shingles in the gable end visually reference the popular Queen…
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Intricate ornamental cresting caps the dome on the octagonal tower of this handsome residence. Its eclectic architecture combines elements of the Queen Anne and French Second Empire styles. A partial Mansard roof at the northeast corner and a front window with unusual stone and brick surrounds…
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Phoebe Hearst, wife of wealthy California senator George Hearst, had a special relationship with Anaconda. Hearst was one of Daly’s principal investors and Mrs. Hearst took an active interest in improving Anaconda’s cultural opportunities. She asked city fathers for suggestions. Receiving no reply,…
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On May 30, 1923, the Rt. Rev. John P. Carroll, bishop of Helena, laid the cornerstone for the St. Paul’s Parochial School. Built in the center of this block under the direction of Rev. A. R. Coopman, the school long served the children of St. Paul’s parish. This building, completed at the same…
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Most West Side residents were Anaconda Company executives or self-employed professionals, but Daniel Conley, who built this Queen Anne style home in 1899, was a notable exception. Conley, who came to Anaconda in 1887, was employed as a Company carpenter. Just as he finished this Queen Anne style…
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Seattle-based theater architect B. Marcus Pinteca (1890-1971) drew the plans for this remarkable structure in 1930. However, the Depression delayed interior finishing and the $200,000 movie theater did not open until 1936. The Washoe Theater and Radio City Music Hall in New York were the last two…
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Railroad contractor Peter McVeigh built this Queen Anne Free Classic style house (and the one next door) as an investment in 1896. The dark stone foundation, red brick walls, dentilated (toothlike) window arches, and cutaway panels below and beside the windows were typical decorative conventions…
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Anaconda’s business leaders located on the town’s west side beginning in the 1890s. The idyllic neighborhood was far from the smelter and close to commerce on Main and Park streets. Tree-lined sidewalks with street lamps, a large public park, and a new library attracted Anaconda’s upper- and…
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