The site of the Washoe Theater was a previous site to two other theaters in Anaconda. Those two theaters were The Margaret Theater, which existed since the founding of the town and remodeled in 1927, and the Sundial Theater, which burned down in 1929. An architect by the name of B. Marcus Priteca was the one who built the theater. Priteca had a reputation of work in his field designing places like the Seattle Coliseum and the Pantages Theaters in California. Interior decoration of the theater was supervised by Nat Smythe, who had help completing the interior murals.The Washoe Theater was built at a time where motion picture films had hit their peak in the 30’s. Several Art Deco movie theaters had been built around the country, but some were destroyed making this place one of the last few standing. The whole cost of building this movie theatre was $200,000. It was set for opening in 1931, but it’s opening had to be postponed since America was going through the Great Depression. The theater officially opened up in 1936.The first movie to ever be showed in this theater was a Western movie. The movie was called The Texas Rangers starring Fred MacMurray. It still operates as a movie theater in Anaconda today. The Washoe Theater was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The Smithsonian Institute ranked it fifth in the nation for the architectural style it was built with.

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Built in 1936 as one of the last Art Deco style theaters, this site is a prime example of popular theater style in the 1930s. The architect is so significant that the Smithsonian Institute has ranked it fifth in the nation for its architectural value. Architect B. Marcus Priteca was responsible for designing the theater. Although it was ready for opening in 1931, the theater remained closed until 1936 due to the Great Depression. The Washoe Theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Sites in 1982. 

Washoe Theater

Institution

This short walk through this historic Montana mining town includes Anaconda's historic city hall, the Washoe Theater, Hearst Library, St Mark's Episcopal Curch, and the Deer Lodge County Courthouse. 

The city of Anaconda was founded by copper magnate Marcus Daly (1841-1900) in 1883. He had owned the Anaconda mine in Butte since 1881, where a large vein of copper (300 feet deep and 100 feet wide; it was one of the biggest discovered at the time) was found under silver a deposit. Copper was increasingly in demand as it was needed for telegraph communication and electricity, both of which were just starting to be used around the country. To process the copper ore, Daly built a smelter here in Anaconda and platted the town around it (the smelter site is now Anaconda Smoke Stack State Park; the only structure remaining is the tall 585-foot smokestack built in 1918). Daly became rich and was among those who were nicknamed the "Copper Kings."By the time the City Hall building was erected, Anaconda was a thriving mining town. In fact, Daly had a dream that Anaconda would become Montana's capital city. The building's design reflects this desire, embodying the city's aspirations to become an important civic and economic center. As alluded to above, the building incorporates a number of architectural styles including Romanesque arches, Gothic tracery, and a Chateauesque (French) roof topping the northeast tower. The city used the old building until 1978 and it was slated for demolition as part of a redevelopment project. Fortunately, a local preservation group worked to prevent this from happening.

While no longer used for its original purpose, the former Anaconda City Hall building (it also housed a fire station) remains an important landmark in the city. Designed by Butte-based architects Charles Lane and Collins W. Reber, it was built in 1896 and is a beautiful example of eclectic Late Victorian architecture. Its interesting facade consists of a red brick and granite stone exterior; a 90-foot stair tower on the northwest corner with diagonally placed arched windows; an arched entryway on Commercial street with a Moorish "keyhole" arched window above it; and two projecting bays on the west side of the building, one of which features an arched dormer with lancet windows, and the other features arches above large openings once used for fire trucks. Today the building houses the Copper Village Museum & Art Center and the Marcus Daly Historical Museum & Archives. 

City Hall Center

Anaconda, Montana, established in 1883, was founded as a company town, driven by the gigantic Anaconda Mining Company smelting and reduction complex located on Anaconda’s east side. During the 1890s and 1900s, the town experienced unprecedented growth. The Company was embarking on a variety a new construction and expansion projects that increased the number of jobs available for laborers. The new Washoe Works facility, built in 1902 and the third smelting company constructed in Anaconda, was one of these projects. The availability of housing during the early 1900s suffered as many immigrant families moved to the community looking for work.   To curb the shortage of available housing, The Company, as well as private entrepreneurs, began building boardinghouses, rooming houses, apartments, and rented cabins. General lodging expenses in Anaconda ranged between $8.00 to $25.00 per month, depending on the accommodations and whether board was provided. Similar Company-owned boardinghouses in the area charged $6.00 per week in 1901. Some Anaconda boardinghouses doubles as rooming houses, charging room and board separately. Discretionary accommodations allowed roomers to produce a punch card if a meal was desired, with the cost of a meal being approximately $0.35 in the early 1900s.   Despite their seeming unfriendliness and regimentation, boarding and rooming houses in Anaconda, like in other industrial cities of America, provided lodgers with more than the primary service of a place to eat and sleep. The boardinghouse became a surrogate household complete with a substitute family for the many worker who had left their wives and other family members behind in their native lands. Boardinghouses were often established along ethnic lines: Irish owners rented to Irish boarders; Austrian owners rented to Slavic lodgers. Lodgers sought ethnically homogeneous boardinghouses for reasons of comfort and convenience. Lodgers with similar backgrounds shared the same language, the same problems, and the same interests. For most immigrants who had come from small European villages, boardinghouses also gave them some semblance of the closeness and camaraderie inherent to village life, yet absent from the independent and self-indulgent life that the general American city offered.  Long-time resident of Anaconda and building of the Sheehan’s Boardinghouse, John Lund Jacobson immigrated to the United States from Norway during the early 1880s. He arrived in Anaconda in approximately 1885, working on numerous residences and buildings in the city between 1895 and 1925. He originally worked for the Anaconda Company on the Upper Works, but he soon established himself as a contractor and was able to secure several contacts over the years, specializing in residential constructions.   Jacobson originally intended the building to serve as his coal and wood shop and private residence. Indeed, the Western Commercial style of the building, with its plain brick façade and large first-story window, reflects these functions. Only six years after construction, however, the building became a boardinghouse. Census records indicate that Peter McGuire, an Irishman who was born in 1870 and had immigrated to the United States in 1887, rented the building. Six Irish lodgers lived there in 1910, in addition to McGuire, his wife Annie (who ran the boardinghouse), and his four children.   By 1920, Thomas Sheehan had bought the building, and, with his wife Flora, continued to maintain it as a boardinghouse. Thomas Sheehan was born in Canton, Massachusetts in 1876 to Irish immigrant parents. He came to Anaconda in 1910 and worked as a boiler maker and a lead burner for the Anaconda Company starting in 1914. He and Flora had six children and operated the boardinghouse until at least 1940, the same year during which Mr. Sheehan passed away.   The Sheehan Boardinghouse is one of the best-preserved examples of combination commercial and residential construction in Anaconda, Montana, and was one of the few buildings attributable to important local builder John Lund Jacobson. Additionally, its associations with the development of Anaconda, and its adaptation into one of many multi-family dwellings in order to meet the housing demands of laborers, making the building one of the most significant resources in the city.

The Sheehan Boardinghouse, also known as the Empty Arms Boardinghouse, was constructed approximately in 1904 by John Jacobson. Jacobson, the premier residential contractor in Anaconda, Montana between 1900 and 1920, designed the building as a combination coal and wood shop and single-family dwelling for himself. By 1910, however, it had been converted into a boardinghouse. The boardinghouse is significant for its associations with Anaconda’s residential development as one of the many boardinghouses and rooming houses in Anaconda during the 1890s and early 1900s. The building is also important as an example of simple Western Commercial architecture and as a representative example of the work of Anaconda builder and designer John Jacobson. It is one of the few remaining boardinghouses in Anaconda and retains a high degree of integrity, and it is one of the few constructions that is documented and can be directly credited to Jacobson.  

Sheehan Boardinghouse

Phoebe (1842-1919) and George Hearst (1820-1891) were one of the country's elite couples during the 19th century. George was a wealthy miner who invested in a number of productive mining interests in the country, including the Comstock Lode and the aforementioned Anaconda Mine in Butte, which was developed by "Copper King" Marcus Daly. He also served as Senator from California between 1871 and 1891. He and Phoebe married in 1841. Their one and only child, William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951), would would go onto build country's biggest newspaper/media companies. For her part, Phoebe trained to be a teacher and later became a supporter of women's rights and a philanthropist, especially in the area of education. While she and George never lived in Anaconda (they lived in California), she developed a connection to the community. She wanted to build a library so that residents here could have a place to learn, gather, and also admire art that she had acquired. She remained in charge of the library until 1904 when the city assumed control. Phoebe donated funds to many other places around the country including the University of California, Berkeley and the first free kindergarten in the country in 1877.

This attractive building is the historic Hearst Free Library, which was built in 1898 and has operated as Anaconda's only public library ever since. It is an significant landmark in city, having served as an important cultural center. Its design also adds to its significance. The library is an exceptional example of Classical architecture, featuring a red-brick exterior, grand entrance with two granite Corinthian columns, arched windows surrounding the first floor, square windows on the second floor, pilasters (decorative elements that resemble columns) with Corinthian capitals, and a copper cornice (the top edge of the exterior walls). A four-sided clock also stands near the northwest corner of the building. The library is named after Pheobe Hearst, the wife of Anaconda Mining Company partner George Hearst, who donated money to build it. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Hearst Free Library

Marcus Daly founded Anaconda in 1883 around a smelter he built that processed copper ore from the Anaconda Mine in Butte. The smelter was the main economic driver for the town, attracting workers and businesses. As a result, Anaconda grew rapidly. Among those who arrived were Episcopalians who were ministered by priests from Deer Lodge or Butte. The bishop in Helena also visited the town. For the first several years before the church was erected in 1890, the congregation met in another church and even above a saloon. Interestingly, during a baptism at the saloon, water for the ceremony was poured from a beer mug. The rocks used to build the church were from a quarry close to Garrison, which is 35 miles away. In 1892 the church was forced to close as a result of the smelter shutting down and the priest moved to Nebraska for three months after not getting paid. Fortunately, St. Mark's reopened the next year and a new priest joined the congregation. Margaret Daly donated a pipe organ to the church in 1896.

St. Mark's Episcopal Church is a historic church situated at the corner of Main and 6th Streets. Built in 1890, it was designed in the Romanesque Revival style, featuring a buff colored stone exterior, and a square bell tower. St. Mark's is also notable for being the church of Anaconda founder and copper magnate Marcus Daly and his wife, Margaret. The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

St. Mark's Episcopal Church

Deer Lodge County was established in 1864 when the Montana Territory was created. It was one of the state's nine original counties (Montana didn't become a state until 1889). The county was named after the valley in which it is located, what Indians called the "Lodge of the White Tailed Deer." The first county seat was located at Silver Bow before being relocated to Deer Lodge City in 1867. Anaconda became the county seat in 1896, by which time the city had grown tremendously as a result of the thriving mining industry. The planning to build the current courthouse got underway in 1897 and, as noted above, it was completed in 1900. The main courtroom is located on the third floor, as are the judge's chambers, jury rooms, and the court reporter and clerk's rooms.

Situated prominently at the southern end of Main Street, the Deer Lodge County Courthouse has served as the seat of county government since its construction in 1900. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 for its architecture and role as a government facility. Architects Charles F. Bell and John N. Kent designed it in the Neoclassical style. Notable features include a buff-colored sandstone exterior, and a large two-tiered domed tower with arched and circular windows, an arched main entrance with Ionic columns, and a large arched window above the entrance with a stone balustrade. The interior features an ornate staircase, decorative detailing, and frescoes and county seals painted on the dome by artists from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Anaconda Montana Walking Tour

Washoe Theater

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information