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Built
by Harry W. Child (1856-1931), former President of the Yellowstone
Park Company, the 620-acre spread was located along Green
Meadow Drive, just north of the Lewis & Clark County Fairgrounds.
The four
main buildings (house, barn, blacksmith shop and granary)
were designed in a romantic Swiss chalet style by Robert Reamer
(1873-1938). Reamer is best known as the architect of the
rusitc Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park.
In 1887, Harry W. Child made a financial killing in the purchase
and resale of the land that would become the Green Meadow
Ranch. Acting as trustee for a consortium of Northern Pacific
Railway executives and others, Child purchased the 620 acres
for $62,000 in May and June of 1887. It was sold in August
to the St. Paul and Helena Land and Improvement Company for
$250,000.
In 1892,
Harry W. Child, with partners Silas S. Huntley, L.H. Hershfield,
Aaron Hershfield, and others, established the Yellowstone
National Park Transportation Company to provide stagecoach
travel in the Park. In 1901 Child, Huntley, and E.W. Bach purchased the stock of the Yellowstone Park Association to
consolidate their control of the concessions. Later that year,
Huntley died, leaving Child to control both companies. Child
also operated Child & Anceny with C. L. Anceny; that business
dealt in real estate and cattle ranching. In 1909 Child, his
wife Adelaide D. Child, and their son Huntley Child reorganized
the Yellowstone National Park Transportation Company into
its constituent parts, the Yellowstone Park Transportation
Company and the Yellowstone Park Hotel Company.
In 1914,
Child bought back the Green Meadow Ranch (under his wife's
name) for an unknown amount. He contracted with Old Faithful
Inn architect Robert Reamer to design the main structures.
The showplace
barn was 450' long, and 40' high. It was constructed of heavy
hand-hewn timbers; the window-frames were hand-carved with
fanciful designs featuring horses heads, birds, etc. The barn
had three cross-passageways, large enough to drive a team
and wagon through. It had three lofts, one of which was sometimes
used for dancing.
The residence
burned to the ground in 1924, as did the barn in 1956 -- with
the loss of twenty head of prize stock. The last owner of
the Ranch was Black Angus breeder W. J. Harrer, who sold the
land in the 1970s. It has since been subdivided. Harrer and
his wife were major benefactors of Helena's Grandstreet Theatre.
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