Houston / Parker House

According to its abstract of title, in 1909 this home was moved to Kalispell from Demersville, four miles away. Dr. William Taylor, a local surgeon, physician, and county coroner, owned the property by 1910. He traded houses and medical practices with Whitefish physician Dr. Hugh E. Houston in 1914.

Dr. Houston, whose wife was tragically killed in a hunting accident in 1913, settled here with his three small daughters and second wife. The Houstons added the porch, kitchen, and dining room at the rear of the house, and Dr. Houston’s medical office was in a downstairs bedroom. In 1927, William Parker purchased the property and gave it to his beloved wife, Mable, as a Christmas present.

Parker was a world traveler whose profession as a refinery builder brought him to Kalispell in 1921. In time the home passed to the Parkers’ children and finally to William and Mable’s granddaughter, who retains ownership into the twenty-first century. Narrow clapboard siding, Tuscan columns, and distinctive twin-gabled dormers make the house comfortable among its vintage contemporaries in this historic neighborhood.