The Lorraine Apartments were built during Anaconda's second major building boom, this one caused by the wartime need for the city's major export, copper. It was just before the war that contractors began building self-sufficient apartments, as opposed to boarding and
rooming houses that had previously been the norm.
This apartment building was designed by W. W. Hyslop of the firm of Hyslop and Westcott. Hyslop was one of the most prolific architects in Anaconda from the 1890s through the teens. At the time this building went up architects were beginning to eschew the chintz and glitz of Romanesque and Victorian architecture in favour of more simplistic (and cheaper) design, which is exhibited in this and other buildings designed by Hyslop at the time.
W. W. Hyslop
Although little is known about the background and training of Mr. Hyslop, he was the most popular architect in Anaconda during the 1890s. A graduate of Columbia College in New York City, he came to Anaconda in 1894 and established an architectural office at 209 Main. The local newspaper two years after his arrival credited him with designing at least one-half of all of the architect-designed buildings in Anaconda built between 1894 and 1896. In approximately 1900, he left Anaconda and moved to Spokane. Evidence of his work in Anaconda during the first decade of the twentieth century diminished until he reemerged in 1915 with partner George Westcott of Spokane. Hyslop and Westcott designed three substantial buildings in Anaconda. The Hyslop-Westcott office was then located in the Montana Hotel.
From the National Register Multiple Property Form, Page 56