Sawyer House

Harriet and Hugh Sawyer built this Queen Anne style home before 1903 as a rental property. The scrollwork and fish-scale shingles ornamenting the gable end, leaded glass, and a bay window reflect the style’s popularity. The front-gable residence originally had a one-story rear wing. The homeowners enlarged it after 1955 by adding a second story.

Early residents included deputy county clerk and recorder Charles Morrill and his wife Geraldine, high school teacher Samuel Brown, and widow Kate Bull and her seven children. Grain thresher Martin Knutson and his wife Ella and their five children lived here in 1920. The Browns, who lived here in 1922, had four children and the Kings, who lived here in 1938, had five.

Large families were the norm. When part owner of the Daily Inter Lake newspaper Arthur Sward and his wife Blanche purchased the residence in 1930, the home was assessed for $2,600. Neighborhood children had picnics and played on the vacant lot across the street until 1929, when the county built Cornelius Hedges Elementary School.

The Sawyer House has always been a home brimming with children. MT NATIONAL REGISTER SIGN TEXT 1990 TO APRIL 2019