Prominent Butte architect H. M. Patterson designed four identical duplexes along this block in 1899 for William A. Clark Jr., the son of copper king W. A. Clark. These distinctive Queen Anne style residences feature exaggerated street-facing gables and multi-textured wall surfaces of granite, brick, clapboard, and wood shingles. Each duplex cost a substantial $4,000. Young Clark’s residential development signaled the move of Butte’s affluent, socially prominent citizens to the far west side with Excelsior as the main artery. Clark’s law school friend and future chief legal adviser, John Templeman, lived at No. 226 with his wife Irene (Belle) and son Percy until 1920. John was a former University of Virginia football star and became one of Butte’s most respected lawyers. Early tenants at No. 224 included George Cochrane, agent for the Revere Rubber Company, and music store owner William Dierks and family. Eye doctor Thomas A. Grigg and his wife Joanna purchased the duplex in 1920. Joanna was an accomplished painter and, as president of the Butte Woman’s Club, devoted her time to philanthropic efforts. Thomas died in 1934 and Joanna in 1935.

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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 divorced—stationary engineer Victor Huffman. To meet the booming city’s demand for commercial and living spaces, the sisters hired Butte architect H. M. Patterson to design this building in 1901. The first floor, which featured floor-to-ceiling show windows, was rented to businesses. The upper floors served as offices and living quarters; tenants included both professionals and miners. Constructed for $40,000 (approximately $1.2 million in 2020 dollars), the “modern building” was “heated with steam and lighted with electricity.” Each room contained its own “ever-necessary wash stand” and clothes closet. To avoid the health problems commonly associated with tenement apartments, Patterson designed the Kenwood so that all rooms received natural light and had good ventilation. By 1909, the basement served as a National Guard armory. Marie lived in the Kenwood until her death in 1937.

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Butte architect H. M. Patterson designed this brick home for attorney John Colter in the 1890s. Semicircular windows in the gables, stone lintels, a prominent portico supported by Tuscan columns, and an inviting front porch ornament the residence. Henry Muntzer, founder of the Butte Brewery, purchased the property in 1901 for his wife Mary and their eight children. Family members lived here into the 1940s, adding the east addition before 1916. Butte’s Soroptimist Club purchased the residence in 1947 for $5,500. The charitable women’s organization campaigned tirelessly for funds to transform the house into a temporary “receiving home for dependent, neglected, abused, or abandoned children.” With volunteer help from Butte union members, the Soroptimists added four new rooms to the rear of the building, repaired the porches, updated the wiring, installed fire escapes, added a third bathroom, carpeted the floors, and built a playground. In its first ten years of operation, the home cared for over 1,700 children. After the Soroptimists moved in 1970, the residence fell into disrepair. It was rescued by Steve and Janet Hadnagy, who spent years restoring it to a single-family home.

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Prominent politician Lee Mantle had this impressive four-story masonry building constructed during 1892, the year he was elected mayor of Butte. Architect H. M. Patterson designed the commercial-residential structure, which incorporates a wealth of decorative architectural forms popular at the time. The curved corner turret and the mixing of stone and brick on the façade reflect Patterson’s distinctive eclectic style. Griffins and scrolls on the capitals between the third and fourth floors enhance the lively treatment of the façade. Remodeling in 1916 to accommodate the building’s long-time occupant, the Liberty Theater, somewhat altered the original storefronts, but fragments of decorative plaster within recall this former use.

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Swiss-born Rocco Campana came to Butte in 1886 when it was still a mining camp with a precarious future. Rocco first opened a saloon then, confident of the town’s potential, invested his savings in property on this corner. By 1890, three brothers had joined him. Clemens, Celeste, and Constante Campana operated a grocery, hay, and grain business while Rocco handled wholesale liquors and cigars. The entire family lived on the premises. In 1894, the Campanas hired Butte architect H. M. Patterson to combine the corner storefront with a new two-story building next door. The family residence then sprawled over both second floors above the grocery and bar. A feed store and stable were on the alley. In 1898, Rocco died leaving his wife Pellegrina and nine children, the youngest twelve days old. Pellegrina raised her children here, running the bar and grocery until her death in 1925. The centered name and date may not be the only reminder of this family prominence in Butte’s commercial history. Some recently claim to have seen the ghost of Pellegrina presiding behind the bar.

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