A little bit of everything was on tap for the 2025 Butte Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization home tour.
This year marked Butte CPR’s 20th Dust to Dazzle tour, with all proceeds going to its Historic Improvement Program grant fund.
156 W. Granite
This three-story union hall was built in 1906 for Carpenters Union Local No. 112, with office spaces and meeting hall on the first floor and a ballroom and banquet room on the upper floors. The new brick hall housed other prominent Butte unions as well, including the Iron Workers, Sheet Metal Workers, Clerks, Typographers, Boilermakers, Women’s Protective Union, as well as the Miners Union after the dynamiting of their hall in 1914.
But by the late 1970s the building was largely vacant and little used. After facing the threat of demolition in 2011, it has been given new life through the efforts of numerous volunteers and hundreds of hours of labor.
1251 Caledonia
Newton W. Simmons and his wife Laura Horst Simmons had lived in Washington D.C. in the early years of their marriage, and perhaps that inspired their choice of Dutch Colonial style for their new home built in 1917. Designed by architect Floyd Hamill, and typified by its gambrel roof and front portico, the house stood alone on this block of Caledonia until the Immaculate Conception Church was constructed from 1939 to 1940. After N.W. Simmons’ death in 1928, the family of Kenneth B. Frazer occupied the home for the next 50 years until wife Kathryn’s death in 1979.
1015 Broadway
John Duthie, civil engineer and graduate of the School of Mines, and his wife Pearl Duthie, moved into this newly constructed home at 1015 W. Broadway in 1907. The house features many Craftsman style elements: a low-pitched roof with overhanging eaves, exposed rafter tails, multi-paned windows, and wooden shingles. The prominent hexagonal front bay and mixture of wall textures are more commonly found in Queen Anne style homes.
In 1910, immigrants Wilfred and Miriam Holman purchased the residence. Wilfred worked as a machinist but was better known as a cornetist and stand-in director of the Boston and Montana Band. The band played for huge crowds and won national acclaim from noted composer John Philip Sousa. When England declared war against Germany in 1914, Holman enlisted, leaving Butte to serve on the British repair ship the HMS Cyclops.
925 W. Quartz
Bernard Noon Sr., a prominent Butte attorney and Democratic politician, had this grand bay-fronted home built in 1901. Noon graduated from the University of Iowa law school in 1895 and moved to Butte in 1897. He was a nephew of Patrick Largey, often dubbed Butte’s fourth “Copper King,” and ended up managing his uncle’s vast estate following his untimely death in 1898.
The home features intricate exterior brick work and lavish interior woodwork including a beautiful staircase banister. The original tiled fireplace remains, and the upstairs master bedroom features two walk-in closets and two elliptical windows with breathtaking views of the Highlands.
701 S. Arizona
This industrial building was constructed in 1909 for Central Iron Works, but by 1912 it had become the home of Fairmont Creamery Company, a wholesale distributor of butter, eggs, cheese and poultry. From then until around 1960, the building was used as a warehouse and distribution center for various dairy and/or produce companies, and also offered cold storage services. From 1965 to 1978 it was used as a storage space. After a 1981 fire in the building, it remained largely vacant for nearly 40 years until new owners with a great vision purchased it in September of 2017.
New condo units now fill the former industrial space, paying tribute to its history while offering well-appointed living spaces.
423 N. Jackson
This property lies in the historic working-class neighborhood on Nanny Goat Hill, northwest of the commercial Uptown. At its completion in 1899, the house represented an upscale version of the worker cottages that characterized the neighborhood. Irish immigrants with ties to Butte’s mining industry characterized most families to call the house home into the mid-1960s.
Long abandoned and on the verge of collapse, in 2021 the house was purchased by Butte Historic Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to the rehabilitation and resale of historic properties. Work by BHT secured the foundation, restored the facade to its original grandeur, and created a clean and modern interior living space.
