Little Mansion

Andy Little was a sheep herder who lived in Emmett, Idaho. He was born in Scotland and came to Emmett in 1884. Andy Little was called the “Idaho Sheep King”.
Little’s Mansion is located at 498 Substation Road in Emmett, Idaho on 124 acres of land. The ranch originally extended approximately to the town of Payette, up to McCall, and through the Boise foothills. The house known as “The Little Mansion” is covered in Spanish style stucco exterior. The roof is made of Red Spanish style ceramic tiles. Ivy covers the outside of the house.
In 1923 Andy started building his mansion and by 1924 it was finished. The mansion is made of reinforced concrete. The walls are one foot thick and are filled with rebar and spare or junk metal including old iron farm implements. The family called it the “Forever House” because of its sturdy construction. Mr. Little had the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 in mind during the construction.
There are three levels of the main house that includes upstairs, main level, and basement. The house is approximately 6400 square feet including the basement, five bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, the maid’s quarters, and kitchen. The front and side porches still have panes of glass that are replaced by screens in the summer for fresh air to cool the house.
At the front of the house there is a large enclosed porch. You enter the house through a mahogany door with beveled glass. Once inside the entry way of the house, there is a large room with a fireplace. One of the doors off of this room is an entrance to the kitchen. The kitchen has many windows and through the kitchen are several storage closets and the stairs to the maid’s quarters. There is a door that leads to the mud porch. The breeze way connects to a full bathroom and a large laundry room.
Another door leads to the dining room where there is an enclosed porch that leads to the back yard. The dining room also has an entrance to the kitchen. French doors lead to the living room. Down the hall there is another set of French doors that lead to a library, an office, and a small, tiled bath.
A beautifully carved staircase takes you upstairs to the landing. Two sets of doors each open to a patio. Upstairs there are two large bedrooms, two tiled bathrooms, a nursery, and a door that leads to a closet that was used as a sleeping porch when Andy Little lived there. The hallway floors leading to the maid’s quarters are maple and the fixtures leading down to the kitchen are plain.
The guesthouse is almost directly east of the main house. The guest house was painted white with a stairway that leads to the front door of the house. The garage is about the size of an average sized house built today. The blacksmith’s shop is located to the south of the main house. The other buildings on the property were a chicken coop, a shed, smokehouse, an ice house, a bunk house, two small barns, and one very large barn, and a granary.