Filed Under Kalispell

Scott / Forhan House

This two-story residence, built between 1891 and 1897, began as a one-story twin of the Ferguson House next door. Its first owner was Thomas Lacher, a Great Northern locomotive engineer, who lived with his English wife and young daughter. Windmill agent and traveling salesman Stacy Scott and his wife, Carrie, owned the home during the 1910s. William Forhan, an Irishman born in Tipperary County, bought the home in 1923. For forty-four years, Forhan was a conductor on the Great Northern line between Havre and Spokane and on the Galloping Goose that served Kalispell. Forhan and his Bohemian wife, Hermine, added the second story between 1923 and 1927 to make room for their nine children. By 1927, the original four-room American Four-Square cottage had greatly expanded with the addition of a full basement, several upstairs bedrooms, and a bathroom. The Forhans also enlarged the kitchen at the rear, removed many of the twenty-seven trees that crowded the lot, and converted a three-story barn to the present garage. During the 1940s, one daughter operated a beauty shop here while another daughter and her husband raised their six children in the home. Forhan died in 1952, but the home remained in the family until 1967. Long covered with English ivy (which Forhan eventually had to remove because it grew under the clapboard), the home is fondly remembered by one of the Forhan daughters as a “house full of love.”

Images

Scott/Forhan House
Scott/Forhan House Scott/Forhan House (PAc 91-51 Kalispell R38 F11). Front to side view of the house, facing northwest on 4th Avenue West. B&W. Source: Montana State Historic Preservation Office from the Photograph Archives at the Montana Historical Society Creator: Kathy McKay Date: Dec. 1992
Scott/Forhan House
Scott/Forhan House Scott/Forhan House (PAc 91-51 Kalispell R38 F12). Front view of the house, facing west to southwest on 4th Avenue West. B&W. Source: Montana State Historic Preservation Office from the Photograph Archives at the Montana Historical Society Creator: Kathy McKay Date: Dec. 1992
Scott/Forhan House
Scott/Forhan House Scott/Forhan House (PAc 91-51 Kalispell R38 F13). Front to side view of the house, facing southwest on 4th Avenue West. B&W. Source: Montana State Historic Preservation Office from the Photograph Archives at the Montana Historical Society Creator: Kathy McKay Date: Dec. 1992

Location

326 4th Avenue West, Kalispell, Montana | Private

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “Scott / Forhan House,” Historic Montana, accessed March 28, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/517.