In 1925, Calvin Coolidge was the president of the United States, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby” was published, and Butte Tin Shop was founded in Butte, Montana. This year, Butte Tin Shop is celebrating 100 years in business, serving residential and commercial customers with their HVAC needs in the Butte-Silver Bow area.
Butte Tin Shop is a fourth-generation family business. The HVAC company was founded by William C. Wills and his wife Marguerite M. Wills in 1925. Over the decades, Butte Tin Shop was passed down to the next generation of family members to run and operate.
Luke Pressler, the great grandson of the founders, owns and runs Butte Tin today. He takes immense pride in preserving the legacy of the family business.
“Being a fourth-generation owner of a family business is like standing on the shoulders of giants, while also paving your own path. There’s a profound sense of responsibility to honor the legacy built by your great-grandparents, grandparents and parents,” said Pressler. “It’s about preserving the values and traditions that have defined the business for generations, while also adapting to the ever-changing landscape of the modern world.”
Shifting, adapting and expanding
In the early days, the company installed furnaces and oven hoods, built partitions for bathroom stalls, remodeled hotel kitchens and repaired automobile radiators. In other words, they did a little bit of everything, as long as it involved sheet metal.
In 1963, Butte Tin Shop moved into light commercial work, residential furnace installations, gutters, flashings and chimney liners and chimney caps, recalled Cindy Donaldson, granddaughter of the founder and president of Butte Tin Shop from 1987 to 2015. “Cutting, bending and insulating were done by power machinery in the shop and then delivered to the job site,” she said.
These days, Butte Tin Shop has trained project managers, journeyman sheet metal workers and sheet metal apprentices servicing a 60-mile radius around Butte, repairing and installing heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems and fabricating custom HVAC components.
“As you drive around town and look up toward the roofs of office buildings, you will see many Lennox roof top [HVAC] units installed by Butte Tin Shop,” said Donaldson. “Because of the technicians who are part of the Butte Tin Shop family and the dedicated owners, our customers have come to trust Butte Tin Shop. That is what makes a successful business.”
100 years in business
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to carry on the legacy and help the community get the best price and the best quality that Butte Tin has always been able to provide,” said Pressler. “Having a small business that has been able to make it 100 years in a small community really shows you that the people of Butte and the surrounding area trust Butte Tin Shop with all the services that we provide. It really puts a smile on my face knowing that we are the best at what we do! And we will always strive for excellence in the HVAC industry.”
A look at Butte Tin Shop’s four generations of family ownership
- First generation: William C. Wills, 1925-1963
- Second generation: William F. Wills, 1963-1987
- Third generation: Cindy Donaldson, Denise Pressler Gorman and Terri Arntson, 1987-2015
- Fourth generation: Jason Donaldson and Luke Pressler, 2015-present
To celebrate their 100-year anniversary, Butte Tin Shop is hosting a block party at 28 E. Galena St. in Butte at 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 21. You can find more details about the event, which will feature live music and food trucks, on Butte Tin’s Facebook.
For more information, visit buttetin.com.
