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Built around 1879 for the family of Joseph Brown, a farmer from Iowa, this two-story stone house with an Italianate-style tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. This home replaced the previous cabin the family lived in on their homestead. When it was constructed, the house was surrounded by ranchland and served as the family's home until 1893, when they moved to a ranch west of Boise. Thought to be one of the oldest stone houses remaining in Idaho, the home has 22-inch-thick walls and later became part of a dairy farm. The Joseph Bown House became a National Register of Historic Places listing in 1979 for its significance in architecture and the early Euro-American settling of the Boise area. In 1988, the property was bought by the Boise School District and the house was restored; Riverside Elementary School was built on the four-acre field that surrounded the house. The house is used for educational visits for schoolchildren and is typically open to the public on the first Saturday of every month.


Restored and relocated Joseph Bown House with interpretive sign in 2019 photo (Tamanoeconomico)

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Joseph Bown House with replacement porch and missing cupola in 1976 photo, looking northeast (J. M. Neil)

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Joseph Bown's obituary in The Meridian Times newspaper in 1915

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There was some confusion over when Joseph "Bub" Bown built his stone house on his ranch, three miles east of Boise. He obtained title to the ranch in 1869 but is thought to have lived with his family in a cabin before the house was built. The mystery seems to have been solved, since a local newspaper mentioned in 1879 that Bown's house was nearly complete. Joseph Bown was born in Nottinghamshire, England in 1829 to Samuel and Eleanor Bown. In 1850, Joseph lived with his parents and siblings in Antioch, Illinois. Samuel (age 65), Joseph (21), and Joseph's brother, William (23) worked as farmers. Eleanor (62) and her daughter, Elizabeth (17) did not have occupations. Samuel owned $400 worth of real estate; he and Eleanor could not read or write.

Joseph wed Temperance Statira Hall around 1854 and had seven children. In 1860, Joseph was a 30-year-old farmer living in the Cedar Falls area of Iowa with wife "Statira" (age 27), daughter Ella (5), son Herbert (3), and daughter Abigail (1). Joseph owned real estate valued at $3,400 and $450 in personal property. Statira was a Schenectady, New York native, and the children were born in Iowa. Joseph's Iowa farm covered over 250 acres in 1860, where he grew Indian corn, wheat, and oats and raised livestock.

Joseph Bown first came to the Idaho Territories in 1863 to mine for gold near Idaho City. He moved his family out from Iowa in 1865. As mentioned above, Bown purchased the land east of Boise City in 1869 where he would build his stone house. The Joseph Bown family was not found in the 1870 or 1880 federal census. The stone house on Bown's farm was nearly finished in 1879. Thought to be one of the oldest surviving stone houses in Idaho, the Joseph Bown House is three bays wide, two bays deep, and covered by a hipped roof. The stone was quarried across the river in Table Rock. An earlier enclosed porch had been replaced with a new front porch by the late 1970s when the building was studied for listing in the National Register. The house's cupola and a rear porch were no longer part of the house, but the cupola has been restored in modern times. Joseph and his family moved from their stone house around 1893 and settled on a ranch west of Boise near Meridian. A realtor, W. T. Booth, bought the Bown farm and owned it from the 1890s to 1927, when it was sold to J.R. Bright. The property became a dairy farm.

In 1900, Joseph Bown's household was living in the Meridian precinct of Ada County, where the 72-year-old farmer owned his ranch. He and Temperance (68) shared their new home with their married daughter, Jennie Griffon (39), their granddaughter and Jennie's only child, Cecily Griffon (17), and their married daughter, "Abbie" Pratt (41); Abbie's two children and the sisters' spouses lived elsewhere. Temperance died in 1904. Joseph was still living in Meridian in 1912, and owned real estate worth over $14,000, according to a local directory. Joseph died in December 1915 at age 86 and is buried in Boise's Morris Hill Cemetery.

Anonymous. "Death of Joseph Bown." Meridian Times (Meridian) December 10th, 1915. 8-8.

B, Kathleen. Memorial for Joseph Bown (1829-1915), Find a Grave. June 12th, 2010. Accessed February 11th, 2023. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/53619979/joseph-bown.

Hibbard, Don. NRHP nomination of Joseph Bown House, 2020 Victory Blvd. Boise, Idaho. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1978.

Preservation Idaho. Bown House, Idaho Architecture Project. January 1st, 2023. Accessed February 5th, 2023. https://www.idahoarchitectureproject.org/properties/bown-house/.

R.L. Polk & Co.. R.L. Polk & Co's Boise City and Ada County Directory, 1912=1913. Volume VIII. Salt Lake City, UT. R. L. Polk and Company, 1912.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of Samuel Bowen in Town of Antioch, Lake County, Illinois, dwelling 50, family 51. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1850.

U.S. Census Bureau. Agricultural products, farm of Joseph Bown in Cedar Township, Black Hawk County, Iowa, page 35. line 21. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1860.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of Joseph Bown in Cedar Township, Black Hawk County, Iowa, dwelling 34, family 33. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1860.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of Joseph Bown in Meridian Precinct, Ada County, Idaho, dwelling 227, family 228. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1900.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bown_House#/media/File:Joseph_Bown_House_(6).jpg

National Park Service (NPS): https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/79000768

Meridian Times, Meridian, Idaho, December 10th, 1915, p. 8