Thierwechter / Kramer House
The Queen Anne style is nowhere better represented than in this charming two-story home built for newlyweds William and Nellie Thierwechter in 1901. The couple spent the first months of their marriage living across the street with Nellie’s carpenter father, George Kirk, while this residence was under construction. Scottish-born Kirk, one of Kalispell’s earliest settlers, undoubtedly applied his considerable talents to the construction of his daughter’s home and then lived with her until his death in 1908. Thierwechter, a locomotive engineer, was seriously injured in a railroad collision in 1906. His subsequent business ventures included a saloon, a grocery, and an automobile stage, run between Kalispell and Somers. In 1924, Cornelia Long purchased the home and lived here with her daughter and son-in-law Lena and Walter Kramer. Kramer, a dealer in firewood, stabled his horses in a barn that stood on the property, and Lena kept an extensive backyard flower garden. During the Depression, the Kramers shared the home with their own three children and grandchildren as well. The residence features a cross-gabled plan, decorative wood shinglework, full-width porch, and corbeled brick chimney. Of special note are the Palladian window with its decorative wood surround and the semicircular arch in the front gable. In 1934, a fire of unknown origin burned the front porch, which was then rebuilt and enclosed. Architecturally significant and home to several generations of the Kramer family, this vintage residence has earned its prominent place among Kalispell’s historic buildings.
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