N.J. (Nick) Bielenberg Home

N.J. (Nick) Bielenberg Home. . Pioneer stockman, financier, and mining investor Nick Bielenberg came to Montana via Fort Benton in 1865. He, his brothers John and Charles, and half-brother Conrad Kohrs were all butchers by trade. They eventually settled in Deer Lodge. During the era of the Montana cattle barons, the brothers were involved in large-scale cattle operations. Among many business ventures, Nick Bielenberg established a wholesale meat business in Butte that became famous throughout the Northwest for pioneering cold storage methods. A prominent, progressive member of the Deer Lodge community, Bielenberg was one of the first members of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, brought some of the first livestock into the Deer Lodge Valley, and pioneered Montana’s sheep industry. Bielenberg built this outstanding Craftsman style home in 1910, exchanging his elegant Victorian mansion for the less pretentious comfort of a “modern” bungalow. Its brick came by rail from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a contractor brought in from St. Paul, Minnesota, supervised the masons and carpenters. Broad sweeping eaves with projecting rafters, bands of windows, and the use of natural materials speak to the Craftsman style. Bielenberg’s trophies, placed in the glassed-in gable upon completion of the home, add a personal footnote. Oak-framed arched doorways, handsome oak finishing, and original brass fixtures grace the interior where the Bielenbergs entertained such famous guests as artist Edgar S. Paxson, Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, actor Gary Cooper, and pioneer minister Reverend William Wesley Van Orsdel.