Following new towns that sprang up across Montana, architect Franklin M. Morgan left a trail of buildings he helped construct from Billings to Miles City and Great Falls. Many were the first buildings in these fledgling communities. Morgan moved on to Demersville in 1891 as that settlement was relocating to the new town of Kalispell. Little of Morgan’s work remains, but his own Kalispell residence designed and constructed in 1892 is a fascinating study in change. Originally a striking Queen Anne style home, owner William Macdonald hired Henry Hansman to remodel the exterior in 1924. The dramatic emergence from the Queen Anne style to Colonial Revival included alteration of the cross-gabled roof to clipped gable, squaring the original floorplan to make it more symmetrical and the addition of classical details including Tuscan columns and circular windows. The transformation was almost complete, except for the remaining two-story canted bay on the east which betrays the Queen Anne origins of this significant home.
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