112 West Silver Street
This historic Butte property began as four small cabins, one of which still leaves its mark with a visible dirt floor in the basement.
In 1895, the cabins were replaced by a 300-square-foot gable-roofed house that underwent several additions over time: first a 12-by-12-foot room featuring a bay window, followed by another 12-by-12-foot extension where the front door is now located and a bathroom added to the southeast corner. These expansions contributed to the home’s distinctive roof lines, shaped by both the original structure and its evolving form. The earliest parts of the house were built using square nails and lacked stud framing, with outer walls made of two layers of rough-cut 1x12 boards and interior walls of a single layer; later additions, including the northwest extension and bathroom, transitioned to stud walls and round nails. In the 1930s, Uuno Sahinen and his mother-in-law purchased the house as an investment. Sahinen replaced the wooden foundation with the concrete one still in place and adding a southwest bump-out for stair access to a small basement he excavated himself. The home also holds personal history, as the 1920 census lists Thomas Robbins, a mining electrician, his wife Josephine, and their five children—three daughters and two sons—as residents, adding a human dimension to this enduring piece of Butte’s architectural and social heritage.
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