22 West Lamme

A two-story wooden residence sat at the rear of this lot, adjoining the alley, in 1889. A year later, owners built this remarkably well-preserved house on Lamme. Distinguishing the brick home are an inviting front porch, tall chimney, decorative brackets beneath the eaves, and distinctive Mansard roof.

Mansard roofs with dormer windows are the defining feature of the Second Empire style. Particularly associated with France during the reign of Napoleon III and, thus, with Parisian sophistication, Second Empire became the style of choice for large public buildings and grand mansions in post-Civil War America.

In addition, the nearly perpendicular Mansard roofs had the advantage of transforming cramped attics into usable space, increasing a family's living area without adding a full second story. This modest residence is Bozeman's last remaining example of the once-popular style. Likely built as an investment property, the two-story home was constructed during the short-lived building boom that accompanied Bozeman's unsuccessful quest to become the state capital.

In 1900, German-born butcher Louis Gries lived here with his wife Bertha and their three children. By 1904, an expanded rear addition had replaced the home's original one-story back room, which undoubtedly served as a kitchen. Many two-story, nineteenthcentury residences placed the kitchen under separate roof to minimize fire risk.

Bucket brigades could more easily reach a one-story roof, perhaps saving the rest of the house in case of a kitchen fire. Bookkeeper Walter Davis and his wife Virginia occupied the residence in 1920 along with their two children, Virginia's widowed mother, and her thirty-year-old brother.