Daly Mansion - Montana

On July 27, 1997 I visited Hamilton, MT and took the Daly Mansion tour. The mansion is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Daly was one of Montana's copper barons. He had bought the Anaconda claims and then discovered a gigantic copper vein that made him a millionaire.

In 1886 Marcus Daly purchased the existing Anthony Chaffin homestead, including the farmhouse, and had it completely remodeled by 1889. This was to be his family's summer residence.

Because the Daly family did extensive entertaining, the Mansion was remodeled again in 1897 to a Queen Anne style Victorian home. This home, when completed, reminded Marcus of a church, so once again, remodeling plans were begun.

Marcus Daly died in November of 1900 before the remodeling was started. A few years later, Mrs. Daly contracted A. J. Gibson of Missoula to go ahead with the remodeling plans. The Queen Anne home was to be incorporated into the new Georgian-Revival style home. The remodeling was completed in 1910.

The home has over 50 rooms, with 25 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, as well as 7 fireplaces, 5 of which have imported Italian marble. The home is three stories for a total of 24,000 square feet, plus a full basement. Some of the main rooms include a large living room, music room, formal dining room, sun room, trophy room which was added in 1914, and upstairs sitting room and a third floor billiard hall.

Today, the Daly Mansion, located on 46 acres of lush landscape, includes exhibits which convey the story of Daly and his rise from working-class immigrant to copper magnate, as well as local, regional, and international history tied to his extended family.

There are nearly 10,000 visitors annually, and a team of over 100 volunteers are dedicated to preserving the grounds and house for the enjoyment of all who enter. The Daly Mansion is a treasure of history and intrigue.

The Mansion was a summer home - they lived in New York in the winter. He owned about 22,000 acres of land in the area and raised prize winning horses among other things.

He reportedly whispered in the ear of one of his race horses that if the horse won, he would build the horse a castle.

The horse ran away with the race and Daly did built the horse a brick barn of fancy architecture with carpets on the floor.

Mrs. Daly enjoyed the Mansion and put a lot of effort into making it a home.

It was remodeled three times - each time getting larger and changing its architectural style.

Nothing was torn down - the previous house was just incorporated into the new house and remodeled.

It has a half dozen marble fireplaces.

The house was boarded up and vacant for 45 years after Mrs. Daly died in 1941. Amazingly it was not vandalized.

All the furnishings had been auctioned off but much of it has now been recovered.

The original wall paper is in most rooms, etc. Very interesting history and an enjoyable tour.

The Daly Mansion, on 1500 acres, was purchased by the State of Montana in 1986 through the Montana Estate Tax Forgiveness Act, in conjunction with a loan from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

It is operated by the Daly Mansion Preservation Trust (DMPT), which was started in 1986 by a band of courageous citizens determined to save history. The Mansion was first opened to the public in May 1987.

The original house portion of the building is over 100 years old and with its age and the 45 years of neglect, the building was in need of repairs when I visited it in 1997. They had to stop taking people on the third floor because the traffic was causing the ceilings below to fall.

As of 2013, after seven years of fund raising and restoration, the third floor is now open to visitors.

Check out this web site for interesting historical information on the Daly Mansion and the Daly family.

These two movies show much of the mansion:

The following video, showing the grounds and outside of the mansion, was created in 2014.

The following 1999 video extensively covers the life of Marcus Daly and his family.

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The third floor consists of several bedrooms and a large room known as "The Billiard Hall".