Butte, Montana

The eldest son of copper king William Clark built this twenty-six room mansion for his bride, Katherine Quinn Roberts, in 1898. Massachussets architect Will Aldrich reputedly modeled the residence after a French Chateau the couple visited while honeymooning in Europe in 1896.

The exterior features patterned brick enhanced by gray limestone, steep slate-covered roofs and circular turrets. Yale-educated Charles spared no expense on details: exquisite stained glass, hand painted wallpaper, a stately curved stairway and the use of many kinds of rare woods reveal the work of talented craftsmen. The structure now serves Butte and Silver Bow County as a heritage museum and arts center.

The Copper King Mansion was the residence of copper baron William Clark. The mansion is now a Bed and Breakfast and offers guided tours.

The Copper King Mansion

The Dumas Brothel operated for almost a hundred years (1890-1982), and is the longest operating brothel in America.

The Dumas Brothel

In little more than a decade, entrepreneur Daniel Hennessy's mercantile business became Montana's first and most elegant department store. Minneapolis architect Frederick Kees this magnificent 1898 Renaissance Revival style showcase of steel, terra cotta, decorative glass, and wrought iron grille work to house Hennessy's thriving business. The Anaconda Copper Mining Company added to the buildings prestige, moving its executive offices to the sixth floor in 1901. There the company reigned over its empire atop the city's most modern building. Facade restoration in 1989 by ENTECH, incorporated, rejuvenated the building which now serves as a major business center accommodating modern offices.

Read more about The Finlen Hotel at Wander the West: The Finlen Hotel

From buttecpr.org:

The small building on the right was constructed in 1892 by John O'Rourke, the owner of the Red Boot & Shoe Company, 36 No. Main St., Butte. The larger and more substantial front building was built in 1908 by Mary O'Rourke. The apartments were high-end residential units. Many Butte residents remember the apartments for being well-kept into the 1980's when the building fell into various owners and began to deteriorate.

The Anaconda Copper Mining Company (ACM) erected the Mountain Consolidated (or simply the "Con") mine headframe in 1928. Towering 129-1/2 feet, the steel headframe and five idlers towers replaced smaller wooden structures (the steel structures are easily seen in the photo at tar right). The Hoist House (or Engine Room), located on the hill above, lowered men and equipment into the mine and raised ore from the mine. The Con headframe is the second tallest of the 12 surviving steel headframes on the Butte Hill.

Below the headframe a mineshaft dropped almost 5,300 feet down to access crosscuts (horizontal tunnels) and drifts that intersected and followed the copper veins. The copper-bearing ore was raised to the surface and off-loaded into ore bins to await shipment via the Butte, Anaconda and Pacific (BA&P) railroad to concentrators and smelters in Anaconda.

Headframes (also known in Butte as a Gallus or Gallows Frame) were symbols of the community. In the heyday of underground mining, electricians and ropemen decorated them every Christmas and lit them each Thanksgiving Eve. The tradition continues today as volunteers light the city's remaining headframes every Christmas season.

Text from a historical marker.

This memorial is above Butte, near the town of Walkerville.

The Scott opened its doors as a Boarding house for miners in 1897. Later, during prohibition, the Scott made its way in to history has a moonshine distribution center for the Butte hill.