The Olsen House is a historic house in

Helena, Montana Helena (; ) is the capital city of Montana, United States, and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. Helena was founded as a gold camp during the Montana gold rush, and established on October 30, 1864. Due to the gold rush, Helena would ...

. It has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

since March 22, 1991. It stands opposite St. Peter's Cathedral.

History

The plot of land was purchased in 1874 by Amelia Dissa, and her husband Louis Derrick built a one and a half-story cottage facing Park Avenue. It was built with wood and designed in the

Gothic Revival architectural style Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

. After he died in the late 1870s, she married Ingethen Olsen, an

American pioneer American pioneers were European American and African American settlers who migrated westward from the Thirteen Colonies and later United States to settle in and develop areas of North America that had previously been inhabited or used by Nati ...

who owned a ranch in

Fergus County, Montana Fergus County is a county in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 11,446. Its county seat is Lewistown. The county was founded in 1885 and named for James Fergus, a Montana politician who was instrumental in cr ...

, but the house remained in her name. By 1884–1885, they built a two-story rectangular addition and a gable. After Olsen died in 1904, his wife replaced the wooden cottage frame with a two-story front built with

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * dolerites in Tasmania, Australia; and in Britain (including Stonehenge) * felds ...

; it was completed in 1908–1909. When she died in 1918, the house was inherited by her daughter Amelia M. Olsen, who lived there until 1946. Four years later, in 1950, the house was purchased by John Conway Harrison, who was elected as a justice of the

Montana Supreme Court The Montana Supreme Court is the supreme court, highest court of the state court system in the U.S. state of Montana. It is established and its powers defined by Article VII of the 1972 Montana Constitution. It is primarily an appellate court wh ...

in 1961. He lived in the house until 1988, and he sold it to Robert Haseman in 1989. The house was later used as offices.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana Italianate architecture in Montana Houses completed in 1885 Houses in Lewis and Clark County, Montana National Register of Historic Places in Helena, Montana 1885 establishments in Montana Territory {{Montana-NRHP-stub