Sleeping in W.A. Clark’s house: the Copper King Mansion as a family business

The red-brick house at 219 West Granite Street was built for William Andrews Clark, one of the three Copper Kings who fought over Butte’s mines and Montana’s politics in the late 1800s. Clark completed it in the late 1880s, and it showed off what copper money could buy: frescoed ceilings, hand-carved woodwork, stained glass and a ballroom on the third floor.

Clark later moved east and became a U.S. senator from Montana, and the house passed out of the family after his death in 1925. It was later used by the Catholic Church before falling into disrepair.

One family since the 1950s

In 1953 the Cote family bought the house and began restoring it. Ann Cote Smith and later her daughter and granddaughter kept it going as a museum and, eventually, a bed and breakfast. That makes it one of the longest-running family tourism businesses in Butte, and it has survived on a mix of income streams: daily guided tours in the warmer months, overnight guests, small weddings and, in October, ghost-themed tours that lean on the house’s reputation.

Running a house museum on bookings alone is hard. Heating a 34-room brick mansion through a Butte winter is expensive, and the furnishings and finishes need constant care. The family has relied on repeat visitors and on Butte’s growing heritage tourism, which includes the Mai Wah Museum, the Dumas Brothel and the headframes across Uptown.

The mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Tour schedules change by season, so it is worth checking before you go.