The house on Warm Springs Avenue is shrouded by barrage of trees and can easily be missed by the common wandered. Once you get past the shrubbery and willows, a three story house with 5 magnificent columns strikes your view. The house was built under a distinct Neo-Classical architectural style, which began originally as a reaction against both the surviving Baroque and Rococo styles, and as a desire to return to the perceived “purity” of the arts of Rome, which can bee seen by the columns in the front and the brass lion head knockers, doorknobs, and other objects around the house. The backyard consists of three sections that each drop down below the next ending with a fence before a large creek. Originally, when the house was built in 1935 by Walter Cranston, who owned a monopolizing Chevy business in Boise, the area behind the house extending to over 16 acres belonged to the family and so did the rights to the creek. After he moved to California in 1958, the current family living there bought it from them and used the area to found their Polo Ponies business. The house had an additional “room” outside for the maid’s quarters, which was removed to extend the kitchen since they knew that they would need no maid. Currently, the property is set on only 0.91 acres and is valued at $684,200.
The inside of the house differs from the outside drastically and from each room to room. The overall fell of the house is that of a British style, a lot of overstuffed couches, a “fancy” dining room, ornate chandeliers, and three very decorative working fireplaces. The kitchen, however, is the rut that sticks out with its tiling. The lady who bought the house in ’58 remodeled it after her husband died in 1980 and since she adored tile, everything was covered in it. There is no stove, just spirals protruding from the tiling and the sink is just a dip in the tiling as well. The home also includes 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a basement, and attic, four chimneys – one for every fireplace and an extra for the wood burning stove that has been replaced by an electric one – for a total living area of 4612 square feet.
The house also contains a lot of antiquities that hang on the walls, a wall decided to the old-fashioned, stereotypical back and white portrait photos, the paintings that look like they should have the hollow eyes too look through from another room, like in a haunted mansion, and secret entrance into the basement, that could well be used as a trap door.
The house is in good shape, with a fairly well kept garden and backyard, and with well kept rooms. The house has an overall pleasant felling that makes it seem like a whole family lives there, and not run down like an enormous house run by a widow should be.
Idaho Architecture Project
