Barrett, Martin, House
733 S. Pacific, Dillon, MTThe Martin Barrett House is significant under criterion B for its association with the original owners, Martin and Alice Barrett, and under Criterion C as a good example of a well-preserved, early 20th-century eclectic style house that combines a variety of architectural features from the Colonial Revival and Prairie styles. Martin Barrett was an early Montana pioneer who became a highly successful Beaverhead County rancher, influential politician, and local philanthropist. The house he and his wife built in 1912 at 733 South Pacific was intended as a place of retirement and accordingly reflects their contemporary and refined taste in residential architecture.
Martin Barrett was born in County Mayo, Ireland in 1840. Coming to Ontario, Canada with his widowed mother in 1847, Barrett moved to St. Joseph, Missouri in 1859, where he drove a freight wagon to Salt Lake City and back. Two years later he was working as a miner in Colorado, and in 1863 he formed a partnership with Joseph Shineberger with whom he drove a mule team to Montana Territory. While Shineberger mined in the area of Alder Gulch (30 miles east of Dillon), Barrett claimed land and began raising stock on a ranch at Horse Prairie (southwest of Dillon). By 1871 the partnership was dissolved with Barrett taking ownership of approximately 4,500 acres, termed "one of the most valuable estates in the country" (Progressive Men of Montana. 1992, p.28). There he grew a variety of crops and raised about 2,000 head of high-grade shorthorn cattle. Barrett's experience and knowledge in stock proved useful as he served as the Beaverhead County Stock Commissioner for six years during the early 1990s.
In 1879 Barrett was chosen as the Beaverhead County representative to the Territorial Legislature, a position for which he was reelected in 1885. In 1911 the Barretts sold their ranch and moved to Dillon for semi-retirement. Spending winters in California, they returned to Montana in the summer to entertain guests and landscape their modern and fashionable home. In Dillon, Martin served on the local School Board but was defeated by his wife Alice in the next election, Alice Barrett served as a School Board member for 22 years. Martin Barrett also was a founding member of the Dillon State Bank, for which he worked as vice president. In 1921 Barrett shared the wealth he had acquired during ranching and donated $190,000 towards the construction of a new hospital in Dillon. Named after its major benefactor, the Barrett Hospital was erected in 1923 using a $25,000 bequest by Joseph Shineberger and seven acres of land donated by the Dillon State Bank for the construction site near Barrett's house. Martin Barrett died four years after the hospital was built on August 17, 1927. His importance to the community was further realized in 1963 when the Barrett Dam and Barrett State Recreation Area were dedicated south of Dillon by the Bureau of Reclamation.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.