This house was built in 1910 and currently holds businesses inside it today. The style of the house is Georgian revival, and it features a solid base color of white. The exterior walls are made of coursed sandstone over the frame on the first floor, while the frame of the second floor is covered by stucco. The most notable feature is the balconied veranda that sits between two massive Corinthian pillars. These pillars sit at the top of the front steps, while a second pair of smaller Ionic pillars sits behind them as part of the support system. The roof of the house is nice and truncated. The house has balustrades with a molded rail that makes a sharp dip from its intersections with the columns. Most of the inside of the house has been converted to business offices though a few rooms remain like one with an ornate fireplace and the staircase.
An Idaho Statesman newspaper from 1910 had an article on the building of the John Daly house. It revealed that the house cost an unprecedented $14,000 (which is about $325,000 in current dollars) making it one of the most expensive houses in Boise at the time. Currently the house is worth about $550,000. The article also described that renowned Idaho architect Tourtelette & Hummel, who also designed Boise High School. Materials used for the building would include hardwood on the first floor, concrete plastering on the second floor, plain oak for many of the rooms, mahogany for the dining room, the bedroom white woodwork, and remarkable for the time, up to date plumbing and heating.
The John Daly House is a representation of the formal classical revival impulse in the beginning of the 20th century by Tourtelette & Hummel. Many of the surrounding homes of the John Daly House also display neo-Classical features though not as pretentiously as the John Daly House (the other houses resemble bungalows). Boise High School, John Green’s House (one of the most magnificent at the time), and the State Capitol Building, works by the same architects, also displayed the neo-Classicism of the century with ornate pillars and Greek design. Compared to other Boise neighborhoods, the John Daly House is unique in that many of the surrounding houses are not as grand as itself, unlike the later Harrison Boulevard and Warm Springs Avenue. It was meant to exhibit the wealth and social status of Daly and the Idaho Statesman described it as “the largest, finest house architecturally, and the most expensive ever constructed in the northwest end of town.” The house’s interior is also unique as it has a full reception hall and stairs, living room, library, den, dining room, kitchen, pantry, kitchen porch, five bedrooms, two baths, a sewing room, and had clear areas for servants as shown by a separate stair which extended from the basement to the attic.
John Daly, the owner bought the house, was a quite famous and significant individual in Boise. He once served as the Director of Boise Valley Railroad Company. He was famous to the extent that his presence in the city, his wife’s dinner, and the couple leaving for California was all reported by the Idaho Statesman. In 1912, Daly was listed as a realtor with multiple offices in the Yates building (does not exist anymore) and as vice president of Allen-Wright Furniture.
Sources:
Idaho State Historical Society File – Tourtellotte and Hummel Architecture, Daly, John house
Ada County Assessor
Idaho Statesman: “Building Activity Shows No Sign of a Let up in Business Section Many New Structures” May 25, 1910