Old Missoula

The three-story brick mansion built in 1891 by Judge Hiram Knowles, who intended to live on the edge of the University of Montana campus, is being torn down to eliminate a hazard and to make room for expansion of the Loyola High School athletic field, which is located on the nine-acre property.

The story goes that the judge knew the University was to be established in the old Willard Grade School building at South 6th and Ash streets, which indeed it was, two years later.

But a permanent location was found clear over on the other side of town and the Knowles mansion wound up in a neighborhood including an oil refinery and two railroads.

Still the house was one of the showplaces of the city, with four fireplaces and inlaid hardwood floors in the reception hall and the main dining room.

It was purchased by the old Hart Refiner in 1924 and the company offices were established in the north end of the building. C. W. Hart and his family lived in the remainder of the big house, and C. W. Hart Jr. recalled that it was an elegant place. Two of the fireplaces had fine ceramic tile faces and hearths, he said.

In recent years the place had fallen into disrepair. Owned by the Montana Mercantile Co., it was leased to the Catholic High Schools Foundation with an option to buy. The foundation investigated the possibility of restoring it but found it too far gone.

So the decision was made to raze it, with the hope of salvaging some materials.

The above article appeared in The Missoulian on November 3, 1963.

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