Parsons House

The Parsons House on 1127 Warm Springs was built by Frank and Anna Moore Parsons in 1925. It was fashioned in English Tudor style by the architectural firm Wayland and Fennell, who designed and built many other homes on Warm Springs and around Boise. English Tudor homes have steeply pitched roofs, arched doorways, large chimneys, and prominent cross gables, all of which are present on this particular house. This house was built with brick and stucco wood.
The original architecture of the home included a staircase from the backyard up to the maid’s room, which the current residents have remodeled. Since its beginning, the Parsons house has been heated geo-thermally through radiators, like most of the historic homes on Warm Springs. In the event of a geothermal issue, there is a backup coal furnace in the basement, though it has never (to the knowledge of the current owners) been used. Adjacent to the coal furnace is the coal room, where a massive pile of coal sits that was dumped in 1925 when the house was built.
The current owners bought the Parsons House in 1992. The house appealed to them because of the clusters of trees enveloping the house, which made it much cooler in the summer than their previous home. Nonetheless, they promptly put in air conditioning, which was the first major change to the structure of the house since 1925. They remodeled again in 2008 to enlarge the kitchen and family room, remove the stairs that led to the maid’s room, and remove the laundry chute. While remodeling, they discovered a couple of beer jugs from 1925 (prohibition era) that the workers stuck in the walls of the house when it was built. Before air conditioning was added in 1992, the living room was used sleeping porch for cooler summer nights.
A recurring theme of the Parsons house is the arch that is first visible in the window above the door to the home and the entrance to the door. The arch is also present on the mantle of the fireplace, which was custom built to contain the arch, and many doors of the house.
The house has had 5 owners over the years. The Parsons lived there form 1925-1957, when it was bought by Dr. Lloyd. He moved out in 1978, and the Hovencamps lived there until 1988. Stephen R. Grant purchased the property in 1988, then sold it in 1992 to the Whites, who live there currently. In the attic, Mr. White has a large model train set, and an original shield from the Union Pacific rail company.