Christmas Gift Evans House

John B. Sanford, born in Maine to Quaker parents, came to Montana in 1864 at age 29 after forming a partnership on the journey west with Christmas Gift Evans, a 24-year-old native New Yorker named for the day of his birth. The two reached Helena in 1865 and established the area’s first water-powered sawmill, then built a highly successful business dealing in hay, grain, flour, lumber, coal, and heavy farming equipment at the corner of Fuller and Lawrence Streets that operated well into the twentieth century. Sanford built this splendid home about 1877 for his bride, Eva, but by 1883 he had moved to another nearby residence and Evans, known to friends as Chris, had purchased the property. Evans’s first wife, Margaret, died in 1894, and his second wife was remembered as a charming hostess who presided with natural grace over their beautiful home. Evans died here suddenly in 1915 after surgical amputation of his right leg to treat cellular edema, at age 75. Mrs. Evans died at 83 in 1940, and her daughter and son-in-law continued living in the home until the late 1970s. The house is a grand expression of the flamboyant Second Empire style, whose brief popularity during the 1870s coincided with the construction of Helena’s first substantial residences, and its bell-cast mansard roof, decorative bracketing, and ornamental iron cresting are especially noteworthy.

Helena, Montana · United States