{"id":1948,"featured":1,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:58:03","latitude":46.01416589999998763005351065658032894134521484375,"longitude":-112.5435750000000325599103234708309173583984375,"title":"Mueller Apartments","subtitle":"Butte National Historic Landmark District","fullsize":"https://storyofbutte.org/files/fullsize/994fbbe7d3e2673524d14521fb0acdad.jpg","address":"501 West Granite Street, Butte, Montana","all_locations":[],"zoom":16,"creator":["Montana National Register Sign Program"],"description":"Turn-of-the-century critics called apartment living “a shortcut . . . to the divorce court.” These moralists believed that the proximity of bedrooms to living areas—and the easy access to both by neighbors—encouraged promiscuity, while apartment dwellers’ limited housekeeping duties encouraged a dangerous lack of domesticity among wives. Nevertheless, apartments increasingly attracted middle-class residents, particularly young, childless couples, older couples whose children had grown, and bachelors and working women, who didn’t need as much space as larger families. White-collar workers occupied the five-story, fifty-five-unit Mueller Apartments, built in 1917 as an investment by A. H. Mueller, president of Centennial Brewing Company. The building incorporates Italian Renaissance style design elements: a symmetrical façade, a rusticated first story, keystone arches over the first-floor windows, and paired brackets and dentils under the cornice. Stained glass windows decorate the front entrance while a belt course and a distinct window pattern distinguish the fifth-floor penthouse apartments. These elegant, yet restrained architectural details announce the building’s respectability and, by extension, the respectability of its tenants, who included teachers, a doctor, salesclerks, accountants, and business owners.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"Private","lede":"","website":"","related_resources":["<a href=\"https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/b2694698-4c33-4e3d-b1f9-d8b8740bf6dc/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read about the Butte National Historic Landmark District</a>","<a href=\"https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/9ecb5fd7-e392-42a7-a16e-94df0f020422\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">See photos of the Butte National Historic Landmark District</a>"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://storyofbutte.org/files/fullsize/994fbbe7d3e2673524d14521fb0acdad.jpg":{"id":2157,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Mueller Apartments","description":"Mueller Apartments (PAc 91-51 B1 Roll23 F22). Front view of the building facing north on West Granite Street near the corner of West Granite and North Jackson Street. B&amp;W. | Montana State Historic Preservation Office from the Photograph Archives at the Montana Historical Society | Sept. 1981 | Photographer unidentified","thumbnail":"https://storyofbutte.org/files/square_thumbnails/994fbbe7d3e2673524d14521fb0acdad.jpg"},"https://storyofbutte.org/files/fullsize/9803c839df751a32ec8e48ea76e1f342.jpg":{"id":2158,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Mueller Apartments","description":"Mueller Apartments (PAc 91-51 B1 Roll23 F23). Front to side view of the building, facing northwest on the corner of West Granite Street and North Jackson Street. B&amp;W. | Montana State Historic Preservation Office from the Photograph Archives at the Montana Historical Society | Sept. 1981 | Photographer unidentified","thumbnail":"https://storyofbutte.org/files/square_thumbnails/9803c839df751a32ec8e48ea76e1f342.jpg"}}}