Hannifin House

From ENHLDWiki

This house was built about 1900 and purchased in 1915 by John L. and Mary Hannifin. John was a prominent optometrist who opened the Butte Optical Company in 1895. He married Mary Moran, principal of the Monroe School, in 1909. In addition to his business, he was active in professional and civic life; he was a charter member of the Montana State Optometrists' Association, president of the State Board of Optometry, and a member of the Knights of Columbus.

Together with jewelers Herman Towle and Leopold Winterhalter, John established Towle-Winterhalter & Hannifin about 1907. The jewelry story nearly failed during the Great Depression, and after Hannifin died in 1935, his daughter Dorothy, a attorney who had earned her law degree from the University of Montana in 1932, took over the business and abandoned her profession. Her sister, Lucile, a nun in Oregon, returned to Butte in 1942 after their mother Mary died. The two sisters managed Hannifin's Jewelry until 1977.

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