Randolph Hoyt House
On Christmas Day of 1914 the Sanders County Ledger reported that “…no town in western Montana … has advanced with the same rapid strides as Thompson Falls.” Indeed, the town possessed all the modern trappings: new streetlights illuminated the courthouse, the Mountain State Telephone Company provided phone service, and a skating rink and two motion picture theaters had recently opened. That same year successful businessman Randolph Hoyt, co-proprietor of the Thompson and Ward Hotels, had this spacious Bungalow style home built. The residence was likely designed by prolific builder Charles Doenges, although he left the community after 1913. Doenges’ pattern book Bungalows distinctly mark the town’s residential neighborhoods; Hoyt’s residence was the last of a series of such dwellings built within the city limits. The lovely wood-frame home features a full-width porch supported by square columns, narrow clapboard siding, and a hipped roof with exposed rafter ends typical of the style. The bay window is an adaptation of a Victorian period motif and clearly demonstrates Doenges' influence. Beautiful leaded glass windows complete this charming portrait of early-twentieth-century elegance in a progressive western town.
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