421 West Story

Five Queen Anne style cottages, among the first in the Cooper Park neighborhood, lined this side of the block in 1904. All five, similar in size and setting, are the product of mail order blue prints and form the first chapter of the district’s interesting “pattern book anthology. ” Lumberman Noble S. Whitacre, an early owner, lived in this home with his wife Maud, two grown children, and a twelve-year-old son in the 1920s.

By 1927, Marvin S. Stanley, salesman and later secretary at the Northern Automobile Company, was the tenant. Ed and Mary Burton owned the home from the 1940s to the mid-1970s, when the family–oriented neighborhood began to shelter students from nearby MSU. Among the first in this house was graduate student Brian Schweitzer (1978-1979), who later became Montana’s governor.

The charming cottage features a side bay window, a gabled roof and dormer, front and back porches, and was originally the identical twin of 411 West Story two doors to the east. The front porch, remodeled with Bungalow style columns and balustrade circa 1920, sets it apart from its neighbors.