Chinese cabinets, a ‘masculine’ dining room and a ghost cat. You can buy this Boise house
One of Idaho’s most historic houses is on the market, and it could be yours for a little less than $800,000.
The house hasn’t been in Boise’s East End neighborhood for long, and it may even be haunted, but that doesn’t make the three-bedroom home built in 1893 any less charming.
Simply called The Jones House, named after attorney T.J. Jones, who built the house in the late 19th century, it is now owned by Idaho preservationist Frank Eld.
Eld, also known for his renovation of the village of Roseberry in Valley County, purchased the Jones House in the early 2010s after the house was threatened with demolition to make way for new developments in Boise’s historic Central Addition neighborhood. It was one of several houses that were moved at the time.
By 2015, he’d purchased the house and moved it to its current location at 403 E. Reserve St. in the East End. A couple of years later, he’d fully restored the house to its former glory, from historically accurate carpets and light fixtures to the “masculine” dining room that was once used for post-meal cigars.
“The first time I walked in the door, I knew this house had to be saved,” Eld previously told the Idaho Statesman for a story about the house’s move, restoration and historical significance published in April 2017.
But almost six years on, Eld is ready to part ways with the house.
“‘The Jones House’ was historically moved in 2017 and perfectly restored to its original charm at the base of the foothills & just blocks from downtown on a dead-end street,” the listing on the real estate site Zillow reads. “Step back in time once you enter from the front porch and are welcomed by original woodwork, windows and charming staircase.”
Eld and his brothers Larry, Dale and Mac handled most of the house’s restoration work. More than a century’s worth of paint was stripped off the newel posts and handrails of the front stairway, a pass-through built-in china cabinet was maintained in the household, and a 1940s linoleum floor was kept in an upstairs study.
Eld thinks an old feline ghost stuck around the property, too.
“I think there’s a ghost cat,” Eld told the Statesman in 2017. “Every so often, something goes flashing past me, and I’ll see it in the other room. If I’m in the dining room, I’ll see it in here; if I’m here, I’ll see it over there. And it’s just the shadow that I catch, so I like to say that we have a ghost cat.”
The Jones House has been listed on Zillow for just over five months. You can request a tour of the house typically on the same day as your request.
This story was originally published November 29, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
