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Daly Mansion: steeped in Montana history
August 28, 2008
BY GREG LEMON
You can smell the expensive perfume wafting from a guest room, hear the classical piano coming from the music room on the first floor and smell the pipe tobacco wafting from the trophy room.
The Daly Mansion is a Georgian Revival mansion undergoing its third remodel, with help from the community and the University of Montana.
The restoration efforts have been in the works for the past three years, and with the University of Montana acting as the restoration leader, work should be completed by December 2005, at a cost of about $1.8 million.
Marcus Daly, an early Montana mining magnate and businessman, bought the home in 1886 by from Anthony Chaffin. The size of the house grew with each remodel to its current 24,000 square feet.
The structure has the appearance of a southern plantation straight out of "Gone With the Wind." Maple trees line the dirt driveway from the Eastside highway. On the west side of the property, the lawn steps down to green pastures, where Daly's prized race horses once roamed.
Even though the mansion was modeled after a southern plantation, in a cool fall wind, with the leaves turning shades of deep red and orange and the sound of cattle in the pasture, the feel is unmistakably Montana.
From the widow's walk on the roof of the mansion you can see it all: the old sugar beet fields, the expanse of green lawns shaded by towering maples, and the distant buildings of Hamilton, a town that was essentially started by Daly.
One of the first completed steps in the restoration of the giant old building was refinishing the roof. The tiles were made of recycled tires, which look like slate shingles but will last much longer, said Lanor Kaney, a volunteer at the mansion.
The majority of the restoration at the mansion is underway and everything from wallpaper, to ceilings, to outdoor pillars is going to be restored as historically accurate as possible.
Bringing back the original feeling of the house and the land is important, said Donna McCrimmon, another Daly Mansion volunteer.
Daly never lived in the final remodel of the house. He passed away in 1900 and the remodel didn't begin until 1906, though the plans were his, said McCrimmon.
Daly's wife, Margaret, lived in the house until she died in 1941. After her death, the family kept the home, but didn't live there. In 1946 it was boarded up by Margit Sigray, Daly's granddaughter. Sigray bought her cousins' shares in the property and lived in a smaller house on the 22,000 acre estate.
The mansion was given to the state of Montana in 1986 after Sigray passed away and her heirs had to pay a large inheritance tax. The mansion is on about 50 acres and opened for tours in 1987.
The home continued to fall apart over the 40 years that nobody lived in the mansion. The one room in the house that needed attention is Margaret Daly's bathroom, which was a late addition on in the 1910 remodel. The bathroom is above the verandah on the south side of the house.
It may have been the weight of the second floor bathroom or possibly just poor ground under the foundation, but the verandah sunk away from the house during the time it was boarded up. The shift caused water pipes to break. The result is extensive water damage in the bathroom and Daly's bedroom.
Walking around the historic mansion a visitor can't help but notice how the extravagant personality of the building is textured by cracked walls, torn wallpaper and gaping ceiling holes.
The work to be done is expansive and will cover things like a complete electrical upgrade inside and out, a new heating and cooling system, and a new elevator that will allow access for disabled people to all floors.
But it won't cover things like the tennis courts and pool, said Kim Morris, development director for the UM project. "Right now our main focus is the house," she said.
The money for the restoration has come from federal government as well as a $300,000 "Save America's Treasures" grant. Matching funds for this grant was raised through private donations in the community.
The money raised for restoration won't cover operating costs of the mansion, which average $100,000 a year, according to Sharon Schroeder, president of the board for the Daly Mansion Preservation Trust. Operating costs are covered by donations and fees charged to visitors using the property for events. The mansion hosts social events, weddings, community concerts and educational tours.
"I always tell people never have we had so much money and never have we been so poor," said Schroeder.
Community support has helped in the Daly Mansion's continued operation.
"People in the community have really been amazing," Schroeder said.
Once the restoration work is done, the original wood floors will shine with new finish. The walls may be cracked now, but will be solid and straight soon. The ceiling may have holes from an old leaky roof, but the leaks are fixed and the ceiling will be in one piece soon.
The Daly Mansion has begun an "Adopt-A-Room" program as part of a capital campaign to finance restoration efforts and to provide a way for companies or individuals to contribute to the historic Bitterroot landmark.
There are 37 rooms up for adoption. Each room is worth a different amount and prices vary from $50,000 for the billiards room to $1,000 for the upstairs linen closet. Fourteen rooms have been sold so far, with about $145,000 raised.
The mansion is also letting people "adopt" the columns that stand prominently around the mansion.
There are 28 large columns and 24 small columns. Adoption prices range from $250 to $1,000.
Even if every room and every column were adopted, the mansion would still be short of the money needed for restoration, according to Morris. She has also applied for several national and regional grants through a variety of private foundations.
Morris keeps encouraging people to donate or volunteer. The mansion has been such a prominent feature in the community for so long and restoring it keeps alive a vibrant tie to Hamilton's past.
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