Mc Allester House

Carpenters Hiram Seeley and William Kelsey built this front-gabled farmhouse on speculation in 1909 and lived here briefly as they finished the interior. The frame two-story house recalls the rural character of the area, when the home sat alone on the block. Stables behind and across the alley contributed to the pastoral landscape.

In 1910, bartender James Coleman purchased the home. Coleman, who owned the Pastime Bar and the National Hotel’s saloon during the 1910s, had a stormy residency in Kalispell. In 1912, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union circulated petitions against his business and police arrested him almost daily for operating a saloon across from the YMCA.

The judge ruled, however, that Coleman had a right to operate the business. Upon Prohibition in 1918, Coleman left Montana. In 1923, Bradley R. and Ella McAllester purchased the house. McAllester was a respected civic leader, an advocate for farmers, and the longtime manager of the Equity Supply Company.

The McAllesters’ farm-like setting remained pristine until after 1927 when new homes began to appear on the block