When Boise experienced a boom in the late 1930s, a number of houses were built on Kootenai Street, including the Edwin and Mable Kueser House, constructed in 1938. The clinker brick house was built as a one story, side-gabled building with minimal decoration. A recent addition has modified its original appearance.
William Donald, a local builder and contractor, constructed the modest brick house. Donald was born in Scotland in 1886 and moved to the United States where he worked in New York City as a carpenter on the Flatiron Building. He made his way to Salt Lake City where he worked on the construction crew that built the Utah State Capitol before moving to Boise in about 1920 to work on the Idaho State Capitol. Donald made Boise his home, and embarked on a career as a building contractor. He constructed houses on Shoshone and Pomander streets and many on Kootenai including his own home at 3104. Working from home, he continued to build houses throughout Boise. In 1938 he platted Donald?s Subdivision across the street from his house.
His son recalls that Mr. Donald was a thrifty builder who used bricks left over from other jobs in the construction of the house at 3100 Kootenai Street. When the house, built from his own design, was completed, he rented it to Edwin and Mable Kueser who eventually bought the house from him. The young couple moved to Boise from Seattle about 1935 and settled in their new home on the bench a few years later. Edwin worked as a salesman for Burroughs Adding Machine Company. The Kuesers lived in the house until 1960 when they sold it to Herbert and Barbara Pendergast, the first of two subsequent owners.
The Tudor-style brick entrance was added when the house was remodeled in 2008. At the same time the garage was enlarged and an addition was made to the back of the house. The sympathetic alteration matches the style of other Tudor Revival style houses in the neighborhood and the house retains original interior elements including molding throughout the house and tile in the bathroom off the hallway.
This home was featured on the 13th Annual Heritage Homes Tour in 2015 thanks to the generosity of the current homeowners the Evans family.