John and Anna Gibb House

This wood-frame residence is defined by complex rooflines and decorative details, including ornamental bargeboards fastened to the roofline, a unique bull’s-eye pattern decorating the front gable, windows with wooden sashes laid in a diamond pattern, and fish scale shingles in the porch roof pediment. Built between 1894 and 1904, it was possibly built by John and Anna Gibb, who purchased the lot in 1903 from sheepman J. W. Pope. The Gibbs arrived in Miles City in 1882. John Gibb worked as a lawyer, coal merchant, insurance agent, and real estate and livestock salesman, and also served as Custer County sheriff and Justice of the Peace. The deed to the home was originally in Anna’s name, reflecting the practice of protecting married women’s property from their husbands’ creditors in certain circumstances. Anna transferred the title to John in 1909, and in 1915 the couple hired builder Mel Paddock to construct an addition on the residence’s east side. They remained in the home in 1920; John died at age seventy-seven in 1921, and Anna died two years later.

Miles City, Montana · United States