Originally named
Copperopolis, the city was renamed by the postmaster who discovered that there was already a
Copperopolis in Montana. He chose the name
Anaconda after the Anaconda Mine in Butte. Today a city of over 9,000 population, Anaconda is part of the
Butte–Anaconda Historic District, the largest Historic District in the nation with over 6,000 contributing properties. The city itself contains many National Historic sites and districts. Anaconda is the county seat of Deer Lodge County, with the governments of the two amalgamated into one, making the
Deer Lodge County Courthouse also the city hall, not to mention its being a
National Historic Place.
For a very small county, this is really quite a grand courthouse, but then it also has been forced to serve as the Anaconda City Hall. Built in 1898, its exterior is 100 percent stone, topped with a copper dome on its tall bell tower. In a town built solely on copper, a copper dome was absolutely necessary.
Grand as it is on the outside, the Courthouse-City Hall is equally fine on the inside, as the photos below will attest. Especially worthy of a visit is the interior of the building's dome, with stained glass at the peak and frescoes surrounding the dome's walls.
This valley known by Native Americans as “Lodge of the White Tailed Deer” officially became Deer Lodge County when this area was part of the Territory of Idaho. After the creation of the Territory of Montana in 1864, the first territorial legislature named Deer Lodge one of Montana’s original nine counties. The county seat, first located at Silver Bow and then Deer Lodge, moved to Anaconda in 1896. A bond election in 1898 assured funding for the construction of a county courthouse. County Clerk Martin Martin suggested placing the building at the head of Main Street rather than in the middle of the block so that “A stranger visiting Anaconda has no need to ask where the court house is.” Architects Charles E. Bell and John N. Kent, who also drew the plans for the state capitol in Helena, were commissioned to design the building. Deer Lodge County officials moved from Anaconda’s City Hall into the new facility in the spring of 1900.
The grand Neoclassical style building, constructed of buff-colored dressed sandstone, features a central two-tiered, domed tower. On the interior, the dome’s painted ribs dramatically simulate structural members. Frescoes and county seals by Consolidated Artists of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, adorn the panels between the “ribs.” Other interior appointments include an ornate spiral staircase of oak and marble treads, oak banisters, and cast iron risers. Decorative square cast iron newel posts, originally capped with electric lights, are especially noteworthy.
From the NRHP Plaque
An Irishman born December 5, 1843 in county Caven, Ireland, Marcus Daly emigrated to the U.S. at the age of fifteen, going west at the age of 20 and finding work in the silver mines of the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada. Here he met George Hearst who, among others, was to become a financial backer.
Eventually buying the Anaconda claim, a silver mine in Butte, with the backing of Hearst, the mine struck copper at 300 feet. Copper was just coming into use at the time as an electrical conductor and Daly immediately saw the value of building a nearby copper smelter. This he did, with the backing of Hearst, James Ben Ali Haggin, and Lloyd Tevis. The site of the present day city of Anaconda was chosen for the location of the smelter due to the availability of ample water and limestone for the smelting process.