East Side Historic District, Kalispell 

78 Locations | Curated by Historic Montana

As the town of Kalispell ended its first decade in 1901, the Kalispell Bee reported that the “artistic and modern” residences would well ornament a much larger city. Dozens of spacious Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and vernacular style East Side homes had by now erased the hay meadows that once covered the townsite. Central School, designed by Great Falls architect William White and built in 1894, anchored the district’s northwest corner; Charles E. Conrad’s seventy-two-acre estate and mansion, designed and built in 1895 by Spokane architect Kirkland Cutter, sprawled along the northeastern edge. Soon the splendid Carnegie Library (1903), the Kalispell Hospital (1904), Woodland Park (created in 1910 on land donated by Conrad), and Kalispell General Hospital (1912) added diversity. During the 1920s Prairie School-inspired residences, the Foursquare form, and Craftsman style homes began to grace East Side streets, reflecting the very latest architectural trends. A 1913 history of Montana pronounced Kalispell “one of the most beautiful cities in the state,” but the district still had room for growth and refinement. In the 1920s, the Conrad carriage house and stables were moved and redesigned into five homes by architect Fred Brinkman. A 1930s Works Progress Administration project transformed Woodland Park from a “mosquito bog” into a “beauty center.” Architects of different periods such as Brinkman, Arthur Pearmain, Marion Riffo, and Joseph Gibson contributed to an eclectic combination of styles. This distinctive “layering” of ages and styles highlights the pleasant East Side streetscapes that today chronicle the town’s evolution.

Stockman and real estate developer James A. Ford arrived in Kalispell with the Great Northern Railway in 1891. In 1898, he built a two-story business block at the corner of First and Main. On the second floor was a rooming house, where he lived with his two sisters. In 1923, the siblings moved into…
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This narrow front-gabled dwelling was originally one of three identical residences on the half-block built as rentals between 1903 and 1910. Only this example retains the original full-width front porch with hipped roof and turned post supports. Shotgun residences like these, so-called because of…
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Joseph E. Rockwood moved to Kalispell from Missouri in 1901 to begin a long and successful career as a lawyer. He entered into practice with longtime friend F. Joe Rice. And, beginning in 1934, served two terms as judge of the 11th Judicial District. Before retiring in 1942, Rockwood served two…
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“Harmony and artisticness,” according to the Kalispell Bee in 1913, best described the newly completed Craftsman style home of attorney Thomas Long and his wife, Vesta. Originally painted maize with white trim and green roof, its natural colors followed the Craftsman style ideal. Wide bracketed…
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Perfect symmetry and mature landscaping make this Colonial Revival style home, built by widow Eliza Elliott circa 1910, quietly inviting. The home initially served as an investment, where retail merchant Peter Iverson and his family were the first tenants. Watchmaker Frank Sheets, the Reverend…
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Built between 1927 and 1930, this five-room, “strictly-modern” home was the only house on the block which had an attached garage. This adaptation to car culture suited Kalispell, many of whose residents were active in the “Good Roads” movement—an effort dedicated to promoting the construction of…
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Kalispell carpenter Cassius McCarty, property owner from 1909 to 1911, most likely built this vernacular style residence with Craftsman style details. Shortly after construction newlyweds Herbert and Kate Alward moved into the new home. An established member of the community, Alward was cashier of…
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Built in 1909 for blacksmith Howard Ragsdale, this cozy hipped-roof bungalow features a molded concrete block basement, narrow-reveal clapboard siding, and a small integrated porch. Its wide overhanging eaves and exposed rafter tails reflect the popular Craftsman style. Pharmacist William F.…
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Scottish immigrant John Simpson had this two-story home built in 1901 by contractor and lumberman Elmer Bader. Simpson and his wife Minnie lived here off and on with their seven children for many years. Herbert and Johanna Harmon owned and occupied this house between Simpson ownerships. The Harmons…
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Kalispell stonemason and carpenter Louis Larson was the original owner and likely the builder of this attractive Queen Anne style residence. Constructed circa 1903, stylistic highlights include decorative shinglework, a pedimented porch entry, a canted corner, and multi-paned bay. Interior…
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A number of tenants occupied this Colonial Revival style home, built between 1903 and 1910 for Sarah and Arthur Bland. The Blands lived next door in the near-twin of this residence. When Arthur Bland died in 1921, he was eulogized as a kind, charitable, and generous person; he must have been an…
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An interest in colonial American architecture began with the Philadelphia Centennial in 1877 and inspired the Colonial Revival style. When new printing methods in the late 1890s made photographs in periodicals widely available, the style spread across the nation. This home, built between 1903 and…
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Leaded glass transoms, Tuscan columns, a bay window, and spacious porch spanning the front recall nineteenth-century requirements for a comfortable, homey dwelling. Isabelle and David Sturtevant first owned this early residence, built between 1891 and 1894, as rental property. In 1900, Andrew…
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Irish-born Thomas McGovern built several homes for rental purposes as well as this splendid Queen Anne style residence for his own family. Constructed between 1899 and 1903, its distinctive turret has long been a neighborhood landmark. The mansard roof and porch of the back wing, added between 1903…
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Local legend has it that this home was built at Demersville, a steamboat landing on the Flathead River. When the railroad bypassed Demersville, many residents gradually moved their homes and buildings to the new town of Kalispell some four miles away. Before the days of hydraulic jacks and flatbed…
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Kalispell residents exulted over the construction of the community’s first permanent schoolhouse, and the Inter Lake proudly declared that “nothing decides the intellectual status of a town or city as surely as its schools.” The Richardsonian Romanesque style brick building, designed by William…
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Drought in the Midwest brought scores of new residents to Kalispell during the depression of the 1930s, severely overcrowding area schools. Seventh and eighth graders moved to Central School in 1929, but that building was far from adequate. Construction of the Linderman School a decade later was…
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Kalispell’s growing early-twentieth-century population demanded affordable housing, and local investors responded by building numerous rental homes. New balloon-framing techniques and pre-milled, railroad-shipped lumber made this Folk Victorian style, gable-front-and-wing house both desirable and…
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Marcus D. Baldwin came to Montana from Ohio in 1885, appointed by President Cleveland as superintendent to the Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan bands of the Blackfeet tribe in northwestern Montana. Baldwin brought his wife, Sarah, and their two small sons to live at the agency on Badger Creek. Daughter…
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According to its abstract of title, in 1909 this home was moved to Kalispell from Demersville, four miles away. Dr. William Taylor, a local surgeon, physician, and county coroner, owned the property by 1910. He traded houses and medical practices with Whitefish physician Dr. Hugh E. Houston in…
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In 1890, the Flathead River town of Demersville was the valley’s trading center. However, after the Great Northern founded Kalispell in 1891, residents—including longtime owner of this home, Ira Sanborn—abandoned Demersville for the new railroad town. Many took their houses with them, and local…
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This two-story residence began as a one-story shotgun style house built in 1897 by furniture dealer Samuel Clark. In 1900, the Clarks added the south wing and second floor. William “Dusty” Rhoades, later city attorney and state legislator, acquired the home in 1905. David and Anna Ross next owned…
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The Colonial Revival style is nicely represented in this early-twentieth-century residence built by Civil War veteran Joseph Stuart. One of Flathead County’s early pioneers, Stuart and his wife Nancy settled in the Flathead Valley in 1886. Stuart built this home between 1910 and 1913. A…
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Built on a prominent corner lot for blacksmith Chris Kolle and his wife Mary in 1908, this Craftsman style home features many of the design’s characteristic elements. Its wide, sheltering eaves are meant to evoke feelings of coziness and security while its full-length front porch, tucked beneath…
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Henry and Lena Nollar were the first owners of this Colonial Revival style home built circa 1925. A side-gabled clipped roof, centered portico supported by Tuscan columns, and arched entry handsomely define the style. Henry Good, whose first wife died of influenza in the 1918 epidemic, purchased…
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Isaac Yenne, a carpenter who lived next door, likely built this cross-gable house for his brother George, a Civil War veteran of the 14th Indiana Regiment. The residence originally featured a full-length front porch. Common to the era are the home's clapboard siding, decorative shinglework in…
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Kalispell contractor Caesar Haverlandt built this vintage home circa 1909 for his brother Charles who owned the property. In 1911, John H. Graves, an early settler of Flathead Valley, purchased the residence. Graves was an avid reader and reportedly established the state’s first circulating library…
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Kalispell architect Fred Brinkman, whose versatility is evident in many local buildings, designed this 1929 elementary school in a style reminiscent of the colonial mansions and homesteads of Maryland and Virginia. The original “open plan” was intended to allow a maximum of sunlight and fresh air…
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Postal clerk (and later assistant postmaster) Ora Colby and his wife Alice built this six-room, Craftsman style home circa 1908. The structure’s locally quarried stone foundation and open front porch connect the residence to its natural surroundings. Nature makes its way into the home’s interior…
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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,…
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Self-styled capitalist Olaf Peterson and his wife Johanna, both Swedish immigrants, built this sturdy two-story home circa 1896. It was the first home constructed on the block. While other neighborhood homes are of frame construction, this residence is of brick. Oddly, several of its former owners…
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Slightly arched windows, prominent eave returns, a canted front bay, and decorative shingles reflect the care builders took constructing this one-story home. Retired merchant Jacob Bottorf and his wife Emily resided here from the residence's construction, circa 1900, until 1907. Likely they…
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This beautiful gable-front-and-wing residence, built for newlyweds John and Sophie McIntosh, captures the best of the exuberant 1890s with a wealth of Queen Anne details. The Flathead Herald-Journal declared upon its completion in 1894 that the marvelous home rivaled Kalispell’s best in “style,…
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Founded in 1891 by the Great Northern Railway, Kalispell boasted 651 residents in its first year, growing to 2,500 people by 1900. Confident of finding tenants in the booming community, bricklayer John Lundberg built a one-and-one-half story duplex on this lot in the early 1890s. Possibly the first…
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The owner and publisher of the Inter Lake, a weekly newspaper serving the Flathead Valley, was the original owner of this prominent corner residence. Robert M. Goshorn, his wife Alice, and their two children moved into the new home in 1900. In 1907, their son Joseph, a Stanford University student,…
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As the nearby town of Demersville relocated to the Kalispell townsite in the early 1890s, attorney George Grubb and his wife Fanny settled here in this gable-front-and-wing residence built for them circa 1892. After Fanny’s death in 1894, George took in boarders until 1906 when he married Josephine…
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Kalispell was only two years old when German immigrant Louise Sels and her son Ed had this cross-gabled Queen Anne style residence built in 1892, a year that saw over a hundred homes built in the new town. Louise Sels soon sold the house to her son-in-law Arthur Burnes, but according to the 1900…
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National folk type housing like this one-story gable-front-and-wing style residence of frame with brick veneer gained popularity in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The front porch nestled in the ell is a typically appealing feature of the style while scrollwork on the gable end adds individuality.…
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Carpenter Warren J. Lamb demonstrated familiarity with the very latest styles in this two-story home, which he built in 1898. The low hipped roof and wide eaves suggest the Prairie style while exposed rafter ends are a hallmark of the Arts and Crafts movement. The interior reflects these stylistic…
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Valley farmer James Eckleberry built this residence as a rental property in 1900. Among his early tenants were Big Fork Electric Power and Light Company president Lafayette Tinkel and Charles I. O’Neil who, with his brother Clinton, owned the state’s largest retail lumberyard. Eckleberry sold the…
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The Queen Anne style is graciously expressed in this well-preserved wood-frame residence built for Northwest Lumber Company secretary George McCrea in 1910. An irregular floorplan, pent-roof gables, two-story bay windows, and wraparound porch (now partially enclosed) demonstrate the tenacity of…
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Twenty-one-year-old jeweler Phillip Jacoby moved to Kalispell in 1891. By 1892 he owned his own store and advertised “watches, jewelry, clocks, silverware and optical goods at eastern prices.” Reflecting the local market, he also promoted his skill at “mounting elk teeth, claws, etc., and the…
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A small one-story dwelling stood on this lot in 1894, just three years after Great Northern Railroad officials founded Kalispell. Builders may have incorporated the original wooden house into the current gable-front-and-wing residence, built by 1899. Although most neighbors’ backyards had either…
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There were very few homes in the neighborhood when the Reverend O. W. Mintzer built this cross-gabled Queen Anne style landmark in 1894. Although brick was readily available, its wood construction illustrates the local preference of the period. Rich details including stained glass, an ornate screen…
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Carpenter William Williscroft owned, and possibly built, this one-story hipped-roof cottage between 1891 and 1897. He likely intended it as an investment property because by 1900 renters occupied the house. Sometime after 1950, owners replaced the full-length front porch, stuccoed the original…
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Charles H. Foot left his bride in Minnesota in the spring of 1891 to establish a home for them in Montana. Theresa Foot joined her husband in Kalispell the following July where he had set up the first law practice in the newly platted town. The couple built this home, one of the first in the…
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Flathead County High School principal Gilbert Ketcham was the first owner of this Craftsman style home built in 1908. As principal from 1902 to 1911, Ketcham was a well-rounded educator who loved being in the classroom. He was called upon to teach “history, German and anything else that was lacking…
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The Craftsman style was at the height of its popularity when clothing store salesman August Heusner and his wife Tina purchased this one-story wood-frame home, built in 1910. The stylish corner residence features a low-pitched hipped roof, gable dormer, wide unenclosed eaves, exposed rafter tails,…
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Fire destroyed a small wooden residence, located toward the rear of this lot, in 1910. The prime corner parcel remained vacant for almost thirty years. Kalispell saw a small building boom in the 1930s, as people from areas harder hit by drought and depression moved to the community. Many of the new…
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An eclectic blend of periods and styles characterizes the historic streetscapes of Kalispell’s East Side. This home is a charming example of a mixed house form with Tudor style details, very fashionable during the 1920s and 1930s. Frank W. Cole drew the blueprints for the residence which he built…
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Pioneer merchant James Conlon commissioned architect Joseph B. Gibson to design this stunning Georgian Revival style home in 1914. The home was built for Conlon’s wife, Mary. J. F. Simmonds was the contractor. The high style and fine details are unique to Kalispell’s historic East Side. An elegant…
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Architect Marion Riffo demonstrated a flair for the dramatic in this grand residence, built in 1910 for State Lumber Company manager David Barber. The home features tall prominent chimneys against a steep, side-gabled roof, which capture the attention of even the most casual passerby. Varied…
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A blend of the Prairie and Craftsman styles illustrates the creative genius of Kalispell architect Marion Riffo, who designed and supervised the construction of this exceptional residence between 1909 and 1910. Craftsman style characteristics include prominent knee braces supporting the eaves,…
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Joseph H. Horn, a part-owner in the Kalispell Mercantile Company, built this fine brick home in 1897. In 1905, he sold the property to Everit Sliter, the founder of the town of Bigfork, Montana. Sliter had come to the Flathead Valley in 1889. Having spent all his money on the purchase of land, he…
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A bird's-eye view of Kalispell drawn in 1897 shows this Colonial Revival style residence already in place on its prominent corner. The Kalispell Building and Loan Association likely built the home in 1895 when the company obtained title to the property. The first known resident was Dr. Arthur…
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Newlyweds Kokoa Baldwin, daughter of Kalispell attorney Marcus Baldwin, and Charles D. Conrad, son of the wealthy Charles E. Conrad, built and settled in this three-story wood-frame home in 1907. The comfortable front-gabled residence with its combination shingle and clapboard siding, wrap-around…
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Real estate and insurance agent Charles Griffith arrived in Kalispell in 1891, four months after the Great Northern Railway established the town. An important member of the young community, Griffith served as city treasurer and was a founding member of the 1892 Kalispell Volunteer Fire Department.…
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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…
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Railroad superintendent William B. Green built this elegant home between 1891 and 1894, using bricks intended for the Great Northern Railway’s depot. A lien was placed on the home when railroad officials made the discovery. Green was fired but remained in Kalispell undaunted. Subsequent early…
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Kalispell architect Fred Brinkman added character to the town’s built environment, designing everything from modest dwellings to grand residences and civic buildings. He wrote that “… man has built his hopes, dreams and ideals into the structures which he has created…” This gracious French Eclectic…
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Widower Knute Robbin sold his hardware enterprises in Minnesota and South Dakota to move to Kalispell with his ten children in 1915. Sons Hector, Rudolph, and Arthur soon established Robbin Brothers Hardware in the McIntosh Building on Main Street. Nearby, sons George and Raymond partnered as…
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Many interesting families occupied this Craftsman style home after its completion in 1909. John and Anna Nelson were probably the original owners of the property, but Richard Cap, manager of Cap Electric Construction, and his bride, Leila Noffisinger Cap, were the first to occupy the residence. In…
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Alonzo J. Dean turned to real estate investment after his retirement as longtime manager of Kalispell’s J.C. Penney store in 1927. In 1928, Dean purchased the elegant Charles Conrad stable complex that originally stood on Woodland Avenue. The barn and carriage house were divided into five sections…
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Architect Joseph Gibson designed several Kalispell homes similar to this one, including his own nearly identical residence at 461 East California; it is likely that he designed this house as well. Building contractor Jacob Miller constructed the residence between 1911 and 1913. His wife Minerva…
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Canadian-born farmers Richard and Emily Strickland moved from North Dakota to northwest Montana in 1892. They kept their farm near Grand Junction, North Dakota; Richard also invested in various Montana enterprises, including 160 acres near Creston and an unsuccessful copper mine in what is now…
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Built in 1909, this grand Colonial Revival style home features a symmetrical plan, small gabled dormers, a cornice decorated with dentils, bay windows, and the style’s signature Palladian windows. The second-story porch with a balustrade railing indicates a Neoclassical influence. In the 1960s,…
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Attorney Torrence MacDonald and wife Nellie built this home circa 1911, shortly after the birth of their oldest child. In 1925, the MacDonalds moved to Helena, where Torrence served as the assistant attorney general. In 1928, attorney Charles Foot, wife Theresa, and adult daughter Katherine moved…
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In the earliest days before trees lined Kalispell’s residential streets, this was the town’s only wooded area. The dense, dark evergreens that surrounded a swamp were off limits to children because transients from the freight trains camped here and the mosquitoes were fierce. In 1903, the city…
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