The Place:
Music Hall, Theatre, Saloon, and Rooming House, through the years this has seemingly done it all, today including gambling house, being the present home of Gamer’s Cafe & Casino. Quite Queen Anne in its styling, it is one of the half dozen or so of Butte's surviving buildings which sports a corner tower, or turret. With keyhole windows, a pair of oriel dormers jutting from its Second Empire roof, a prominent gabled centre portico with little hipped roof towers on each of its sides, Roman arched windows mixed in with the rectangular ones, and stone lintels, modillions and dentils, this is a really "busy" building. Lots of eye candy here.
The Person:
The hall was built in 1892 by John H. Curtis, an immigrant from County Cork, Ireland. Curtis came to America with his family in 1843 as a child of 5, settling in Missouri. In 1866 he travelled to Helena, soon becoming a successful grocer. Not long after moving to Butte on August 20, 1880, he became a phenomenally successful real estate investor, soon owning property not only in Butte, but also in Lewis and Clark, Jefferson, and Madison Counties. We assume that, being of Irish stock, Curtis felt right at home in Butte as it had then, and still has today, one of the largest concentrations of Irish immigrants and descendants in the country.
Curtis was, in part, responsible for the construction of the first Catholic church in Butte and was responsible for the construction of the first hospital in Butte, even purchasing the lots for what would become St. James Hospital. Curtis died from Bright’s disease at age 68 July 8, 1906. We assume him to be buried in Butte's St. Patrick's cemetery, the Irish Catholic cemetery of the town.none">NRHP Nomination Form, Page 149, Appendix B
CURTIS MUSIC HALL
Irish-born lawyer and businessman John H. Curtis constructed this lavish four-story Queen Anne style commercial building in 1892. A skillful yet unknown designer combined gables, turrets, arched and keyhole-shaped windows, carved stone, and decorative metal to produce one of Butte’s most treasured landmarks. This outstanding showpiece of Victorian-era commercial architecture has served various functions including music hall, theatre, saloon, and rooming house. While the untouched façade of the upper floors recalls the exuberant 1890s, the ground floor has accommodated Gamer’s Confectionary since its remodeling in 1933.
From the NRHP plaque at the building