Bachelors Club

This Craftsman style residence, distinguished by a large central dormer and an inset front porch, was likely built circa 1910 by businessman and real estate developer Winnie Dowlin along with the two houses immediately to the south for rental and resale. By 1914, the side-gabled, one-and-one-half-story house had become the Bachelors Club, an upscale boarding house for professional gentlemen. Housekeeper Alice A. Coleman created a comfortable, homelike atmosphere for residents including dentist Mark Baker and Charles L. Crum, who served as judge of the Thirteenth Judicial District from 1912 to 1918. During World War I, amid anti-German hysteria, Crum became one of its most prominent victims when the Montana state senate impeached him in 1918 as punishment for his outspoken anti-war views. More than seventy years later, the state senate unanimously passed a 46-0 resolution exonerating him in a re-avowal of free speech principles and a desire to right a historical wrong.

Forsyth, Montana · United States