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Butte

A few of my teen years were spent in unique Butte Montana. For me these were wonderful years. The people there are unlike any other people I have ever met, they are your true and loyal friends unless you do them wrong; and if you do, you will never earn their trust again. They will gladly give you anything you need - even if they will have to do without.

When we moved there we were only suppose to be there for two years, my father rented a little house on the west side of Butte. At the time there were other parts of Butte that were in worse condition but the soon got eaten up by The Pit. I loved this area because although we lived in a small house we were surrounded by mansions......
Our house was in between the Schilling's house and an old rest home that later housed a family of twelve children. (The single mother had hopes of making it into a boardinghouse) The Schillings were an elderly, childless couple that took us under their wings. Helen bought me my first cashmere sweater and clothed Scott for the first two years of his life. She would pick up Scott after his nap and take him to her house next door - once he came back with a Hummel figurine from her extensive collection that he had clutched in his hand. He had taken a shine to it and she had given it to him.

We also had one unforgettable Thanksgiving dinner at their house at which time we ate a nearly raw turkey! Helen wasn't much of a cook but she loved to bake for "Skitter", her husband Ray. She made elegant deserts, ones that this family hadn't ever seen, cheesecake, coconut cake, eclairs, cream pies, but then she was afraid that "Skitter" would get fat and so she wouldn't let him eat but a slice or two. When the calorie laden desert was on the edge of going stale it would appear on our table and be gone that evening!

Listed on the National Register of Historical Places

412 W. Broadway

In 1890 a wooden shotgun house stood at 412 W. Broadway, while a substantial brick residence stood to the east. When wholesale produce merchant H. E. Morier and his wife Teresa, decided to build this two-story house in 1907, they discovered that the neighboring brick residence encroached on their lot by five feet. The Moriers successfully sued the home’s owner O.B. Barber, who responded by slicing his house in two at the property line, perhaps hoping that the dramatic gesture would convince the Moriers to buy him out. With the missing west wall covered by canvas, renters continued to reside in the remaining part of the Barber house while the Moriers began construction of their traditional Colonial Revival home. A one-story projecting bay, a second-story Pallidian window accented with pilasters, and terra-cotta egg-and-dart-trim along the parapet of the flat roof distinguish the resulting residence. The Moriers did ultimately purchase Barber’s property which they transformed into a garden.


The Colonel house across the street. The Colonel died in 2008.
The Maloney's house across the street. Lori was my best friend in Butte.Her father, Babe, owned and ran the Cheerio lounge on Park Street in downtown Butte. Lori and I often took dinner down to dad in the late summer afternoons. As adults after both their parents died, the siblings bought the land next door to their house and built a house for all of them - they called it the Maloney Orphanage! (Yes, my brothers... it is the same land that the burned mansion was on and the place where you got busted for trespassing, not by the police but by worse - our MOM)

The tri-plex belonged to Montana Keith. Montana was a rather ecentric lady that I can only do justice to by dedicating an entire entry to later. Also note "The Castle" in the background. This is a private men's club and was at the time we lived in Butte as well.








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