CARPENTER’S UNION HALL
The Carpenter’s Union Hall, one of many “labor temples” in the Gibraltar of Unionism, contrasts with the ornate home of Copper King William Clark, less than two blocks away on Granite Street. Fourteen mine headframes – gallows frames to the miners – are proud monuments to workers by the thousand who won copper from Butte’s granite to build a burgeoning nation. Copper from Butte effectively electrified the United States from 1880 to 1920.
THE BEAUTY OF
BREWSTER MOSELEY
TEXT BY RICHARD I. GIBSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Butte’s eclectic architecture juxtaposes the cultures, classes, and ideas that made Butte one of the most cosmopolitan cities anywhere in America. It was either “the ugliest town in the world” (Time magazine, 1928) or “the most pictorial place in America” (Joseph Pennell, 1916). But either way it reflected its diverse human facets a century ago, just as its surviving buildings today reflect its diverse and complex history.
HOME OF WILLIAM CLARK
64
DISTINCTLY MONTANA • WINTER 2011
