Filed Under Kalispell

Gilbert Gilbertson House

East Side Historic District

Open-air porches and balustrades on the first and second stories distinguish this transitional residence built circa 1910. At a time when architectural tastes were changing, the home reflects the asymmetrical Victorian-era Queen Anne style of the previous century. A steeply pitched gable roof, elegant stained-glass transom, bay window on the south, and classical Tuscan columns are Queen Anne hallmarks. A shed-roofed dormer on the north hints at the newly emerging Craftsman style. The residence was the longtime home of Norwegian immigrants Gilbert O. and Malene Gilbertson. Gilbert settled in Minnesota, farmed successfully for thirty years, and served as a state senator. When his first wife died in 1887, Malene Hoines came from Norway to serve as housekeeper. The two married in 1889 and added four more children to the family. The Gilbertsons moved to Flathead County in 1907 and built this home circa 1910. The couple’s widowed daughter, Ida Keeling, and her young son Clyde moved in shortly before Gilbert’s death in 1925. Ida married Charles Kretlow in 1936, and after Malene’s death in 1937, the Kretlows maintained the home into the 1940s.

Images

Gilbert Gilbertson House
Gilbert Gilbertson House Gilbert Gilbertson House. Front to side view of the house, facing northeast from the corner of 4th Avenue East and 7th Street East. Source: Montana State Historic Preservation Office Creator: Photographer unidentified Date: Oct. 1980

Location

629 4th Avenue East, Kalispell, Montana | Private

Metadata

Montana National Register Sign Program, “Gilbert Gilbertson House,” Historic Montana, accessed March 29, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/2688.