One of Helena’s most storied mansions, this home—built by rancher Louis Stadler in 1886—has a relaxed, airy, yet grand feeling. Unlike many Victorians, the home’s rooms are exceptionally large and elegantly simple in style. The house features 11-foot ceilings, oak and maple hardwood floors, parquet in the entry hall and dining room, beautiful woodwork throughout, massive pocket doors between the 3 main rooms, expansive hallways on first and second floors, and a full basement with an art studio/exercise room and tons of storage.
The two living rooms, with a pair of magnificent fireplaces, extend the entire depth of the house and are perfect for entertaining. The second living room features a beautiful ceiling mural created around 1900 by John Schneider, a German-born designer/painter brought to Montana by Copper King William Andrews Clark.
The kitchen has been fully remodeled, and there is a built-in china cabinet in the formal dining room. Two of the four bedrooms are exceptionally spacious. The house has a new waterline, recent roof, new wiring, and a new steam boiler. The house’s third floor high-ceilinged attic, currently unfinished, offers an additional 1700 square feet of opportunity.
The house has 3 covered porches and a balcony over the front porch. The fully landscaped grounds include raised vegetable beds, raspberry, strawberry, and rhubarb beds, retaining walls built of granite and slate, a shade garden, and expansive lawns, all watered by a sprinkler and drip system.
Ideally located in the Upper Westside, 418 West Lawrence is only four blocks from the amenities of Last Chance Gulch/downtown Helena and three blocks to Mount Helena’s exceptional system of hiking and biking trails.
The brick carriage house, perhaps the most unusual in Helena, was built by Stadler and his ranching partner Louis Kaufman (who owned the house next door) in the 1890s, and it once spanned the two properties. Today it belongs to 418 West Lawrence and affords an additional 2929 square feet of raw space.
A historical note: Stadler and Kaufman were the ranchers to whom Charlie Russell sent his famous watercolor, “Waiting for a Chinook,” depicting the state of the Stadler-Kaufman cattle herd in the brutal winter of 1886-1887.