The McCormick historic district is approximately 180 acres and includes approximately 360 identified sites and parts of 38 city blocks. The preliminary boundaries of the survey are Orange Street to the east, Dakota Street to the north, the Bitterroot Branch railway to the west, and the south side of Sixth Street. (Click on image for larger size.)

The McCormick Neighborhood essentially developed from north to south, and from the exterior boundaries (Orange Street and the Railroad tracks as well as near the river and 6th), toward the center. Although some development did exist south of the Clark Fork River in 1890, intensive building didn’t occur before the turn of the twentieth century.  The south side was said to have been essentially agricultural, as Delia Hagen reports in a Missoula County Cultural Resource Inventory:

 

Open lands south of the river provided space for recreation, agriculture, and a transportation corridor.  Travelers as well as timber, minerals, and crops from the mountains and fertile farming fields of the Bitterroot Valley reached town via the Bitterroot Branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad, completed in 1889.  The busy Bitterroot Wagon Road (today Stephens Avenue/Highway 93) ran southwest from the downtown business district, also linking the Missoula and Bitterroot Valleys (Hagen, 2001).

Judge Hiram Knowles platted the Knowles Addition 1 in 1889. The lands that eventually became the Knowles Additions, however, changed hands several times before ever reaching Hiram Knowles, and transactions of these same tracts of land can be traced back to 1876 when Saron W. Blain patented the160 acres in Section 21. According to the Land Patent details, Saron Blain acquired the land by the authority of the State Grant-Agri College (12 Stat.503). The full 160 acres transferred hands several times before ending back in Saron Blain’s hands.

 

Knowles acquired the land from Blain in 1887.  Knowles then acquired the remainder of section 21, “less the island,” which was in the middle of the Clark Fork River. This section of land was a sure bet for Judge Knowles, who appeared to purchase the entire section of land for $2200. By 1910, when the Milwaukee Railroad Station was completed in the Southside, a corner lot in the Knowles addition was selling for the same price that Hiram paid for the entire section of land.  By the beginning of World War II, almost all of the lots in the McCormick Neighborhood were  developed.

The McCormick District is a cohesive neighborhood linked by its architecture and development pattern, and characterized by middle class and moderate upper class homes.  The buildings typically reflect the “revival” styles of the period of development, although these styles are not strictly followed.  Many of the homes reflect a mix of architectural and personal styles.  Queen Anne revival, Neo-Classical, Colonial Revival, Four-Square cottage, Craftsman Cottage and vernacular gabled styles are all well represented in the area. There are also a few examples of  the Tudor Revival, Prairie School, and Moderne architectural types.

 

In addition to single-family dwellings and duplexes, apartment buildings are plentiful.  Their styles vary, with several constructed in the early twentieth century like the George Apartments (532 3rd) that are two-story flats, and the brick veneered and stuccoed, Prairie School style Sacajawea Apartments located on the 800 block of Orange. The Thornton apartments, too, are a brick veneer example of early apartment living. This building was constructed prior to 1912 as a three-story apartment complex and was later converted to a hospital for the Thornton brothers, and then back to its original use. A majority of the apartment buildings, however, have been constructed more recently and include the two story gabled apartments located at 522 Hickory or 620 Walnut, as well as the shed roofed apartments located at 525 Cottonwood. A feature common to many of these recently constructed apartment buildings is that the main level is partially underground and accessed by a concrete stair well (620 Walnut and 525 Cottonwood).

 

Most of the lots in the McCormick neighborhood were platted fifty feet wide and one hundred and thirty feet deep.  Blocks were platted with 6 lots to the block, 20 foot alleys, and generally the street rights-of-way are 80 feet.  The plat, filed in 1889, was signed by Hiram Knowles and A.B. Hammond, for the South Missoula Land Company. The building pattern typically is one structure per filed lot, whether single dwelling or duplex, or more. This pattern , with consistent street setbacks and side yards, was established prior to City zoning, which arrived in the mid 1930’s. Below is the Sanborn Fire Insurance map, 1912, number 27.