From Abandonment To Success: The Butte Depot Revitalization Story
Thirty years ago, Butte was still learning how to deal with the economic and social fallout that came with the fall of the Anaconda Company. A once bustling mining boomtown whose population had been well over 100,000 early in the twentieth century, by the 1990s it had fallen to just over 30,000. With the decline in population came urban blight. Many Uptown buildings, which once housed stores, offices and apartments were abandoned and lay dormant. The warehouse district was no exception. Right in the heart of the district is the once-bustling Great Northern Depot which was a hub of railway travel in Montana. For years it sat abandoned, although many would talk about the building's potential. But nobody took action. Until the Fisher Family came into the picture.
