The shea house

This circa 1906 Queen Anne Victorian is set for a full restoration in the Summer of 2027. Stay tuned for details.

The albert clark house

“An eclectic variety of Queen Anne style cottages define Butte’s architecturally diverse neighborhoods.”

This four-room hipped-roof home originally included a kitchen, parlor (living room), two bedrooms, and an outhouse located near the alley. The house type—widely available in architectural pattern books—was popular in Butte as it was adaptable to many budgets. Wood-frame models without a gabled front bay or decorative embellishments suited smaller budgets, while brick-clad models with front porches, stained-glass windows, and ornamented gable ends appealed to wealthier property owners. Albert Clark, who built this richly decorated home circa 1896, was printing foreman at the Daily Intermountain newspaper and, later, a partner at McKee Printing. He lived here with his mother until she died in 1903. Albert leased the home until 1908 when he sold it to carpenter Hugh Warriner for $3,000. Newlyweds Philo and Edith Hanson purchased the home in 1909, but they soon moved to a new residence on Antimony Street. Through the 1910s, young professionals such as deputy county treasurer David Kehoe and mining engineer Henry Morse rented the house from the Hansons.

The reed house

“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 the alley. Life for miners was often rough. John B. Kelly, in residence from 1898 to 1900, was badly beaten and left for dead following a night of drinking in September 1898. John’s friends found him alive in a prospect hole with serious head injuries and a fractured collar bone. In 1902, miner Michael Reed, his wife Mary, and their two children moved here. The Reeds had three more children and, in 1912, were hosting two boarders when Michael died of tuberculosis. Then, in 1914, Mary died of diabetes. Initially, Michael’s sister Mary Casey cared for the children and rented this house to other miners. By the mid-1920s she and the Reed children had returned to live here and at No. 12 next door. The oldest sibling, Thomas Reed and his wife Agnes, lived here from 1934 to 1971.