The first Helena lime kilns were built in the early 1870s by Irish immigrant Joseph O’Neill. Wood was the primary building material of early-day Helena until a series of catastrophic fires in the 1870s reduced parts of the city to rubble. Thereafter, stone, brick, mortar and plaster became prominent in home and business construction. The lime kilns were subsequently sold to James Kervin and then to James McKelvey, a former employee of O’Neill. The McKelvey family still owns kiln ruins in Grizzly Gulch just south of Helena.
