Conrad House (Mansion)
In 1895, five years after serving as one of the first directors of the Kalispell Townsite Company, Charles E. Conrad moved his extended family into this twenty-three-room mansion. The pioneer businessman had arrived in Montana from his native Virginia in 1868, at age 18, with his brother William. They were employed by, and then bought I. G. Baker Company, a mercantile and freighting business based in Fort Benton. The brothers expanded that business and ventured into banking, establishing the Conrad Brothers Bank in 1892. Over the years, Charles traveled into the Flathead Valley to hunt, referring to it as the “Valley of Paradise.” Conrad’s friendship with James J. Hill influenced the Great Northern Railroad’s route here and Kalispell’s early growth. The entrepreneur chose prominent Spokane architect Kirtland K. Cutter to design a home that would fit his seventy-two-acre wooded estate. Cutter selected an early-Norman design, with four native stone chimneys serving eight fireplaces, stained and mullioned glass, hardwood interiors, and many up-to-the-minute conveniences. Conrad died in 1902, but his wife carried on the family tradition of exuberant hospitality until her death in 1923. The home was donated to the City of Kalispell in 1975 by the youngest Conrad daughter Alicia Conrad Campbell.
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