Francis and Hannah Pope House

Rodney Street was prime residential real estate when developer Richard Lockey sold this lot to Francis Pope in 1872. Pope, one of Helena’s first druggists, built a modest home on the property. He and his wife Hannah were prominent in the community and Pope served as secretary of both the territorial fairs and the State Fair from the 1860s to 1892.

As a county commissioner, Pope helped oversee the construction of the Lewis and Clark County courthouse in the mid-1880s. He also engaged its architect, T. W. Welter, to re-design the Pope family’s one-story home. Welter’s prolific work includes the nearby William Chessman home (now the Original Governor’s Mansion).

His high Victorian style incorporated intricate bay windows and dormers, Eastlake style ornamentation, and decorative brickwork. The Popes’ grand residence and elaborate carriage house celebrate the permanency Helena realized when the Northern Pacific Railroad put the town on its transcontinental route in 1883.

Pope was a thrifty man and, despite its grand exterior, the house was neither originally equipped with indoor plumbing nor grandly finished inside. The Popes added amenities as circumstances allowed. At Christmastime in 1887, Francis Pope gifted the house to his wife Hannah with no strings attached.

According to the deed, he gave the gift out of love and affection. Pope, however, did not endear himself to his neighbors. Lizzie Fisk wrote to her mother in 1890 that the Popes’ immense, howling boar hounds regularly disturbed the peace. The Popes had seven children, and members of their extended family continued in residence until 1929.