In February of 1941 Dr. Albert Tollinger purchased property on Kootenai Street from William Donald. Donald lived across the street and had subdivided the land at the southwest corner of the intersection of Shoshone and Kootenai. Tollinger constructed a new home designed in the Cape Code Style. Although no architect for the house has been identified, it incorporates many common attributes of the style which was based on historical architectural precedents of Colonial New England homes. These features include brick construction with weeping mortar, a symmetrical arrangement of fenestration with a recessed central doorway complete with sidelights, and two gabled dormers projecting from the steeply-pitched roof. The Tollinger House also includes a prominent double-car garage with access to Kootenai ? a testament to the growing importance of the family automobile.
Born in Iowa in 1899, Albert Tollinger moved to Boise with his new wife Rose in 1923. A graduate of the Creighton University School of Dentistry, Dr. Tollinger opened a dental practice in downtown Boise?s Eastman Building in 1936. In August of 1945, only a few years after the construction of their new home and the birth of their son, Rose Tollinger died. Dr. Tollinger sold the Kootenai Street house not long after and moved elsewhere on the Boise Bench. He died in 1970.
The house at 3101 Kootenai was purchased in 1948 by Fred and Helene York. York was a native of Denmark who had immigrated to the United States in 1916. A printer who in 1923 as a young professional had won a national printer?s competition, in 1926 he founded the Fred York Printing Company. He successfully operated this business until 1945 when it was sold to the publisher of the Idaho Statesman. Immediately prior to purchasing the Tollinger House, the Yorks lived at 1805 N. 21st Street. They sold that house, which they had owned for ten years, to the State of Idaho which used the North End home for decades as housing for Idaho?s Governor. In 1952, York constructed and sold the house immediately behind his own at 3102 Teton.
At least five more owners have occupied the house which has remained much as it appeared upon completion by Albert and Rose Tollinger in 1941.
This home was featured on the 13th Annual Heritage Homes Tour in 2015 thanks to the generosity of the current homeowners Ryan and Elizabeth Rulon.