The Bonner mansion at Gerald and Connell streets in the University District, June 1928. Edward Bonner came to Missoula in 1866 and established Bonner & Welch, later the Missoula Mercantile Company. His business supplied the Northern Pacific Railroad with lumber. He built this elegant home in 1891, which occupied the entire block. He and his wife, Carrie, had two daughters, Lenita and Bessie. Lenita married Edward Spotswood, a physician and surgeon, and the house became theirs; they had two children, Edward Jr. and Lenita. (94-1408, R. H. McKay Photographs, K. Ross Toole Archives, The University of Montana—Missoula)
 
 

Lenita Spotswood last lived in the Bonner mansion in 1959. The City of Missoula had an opportunity to buy the mansion for $100,000; when it did not, the home was razed. The Connell Apartments, Lynwood Condominiums, and Spotswood Apartments now occupy the block. The photographer found young men on the balconies playing guitars on an Indian summer day. (Photo by Kristi Hager, 2006)