Thomas E. Logan House in Pioneer Village

One of the historic structures in the northwest corner of Julia Davis Park, east of the Idaho State Museum building, is Boise's oldest surviving mud brick building, the Thomas E. Logan House. Logan was Boise City's first postmaster in the late 1860s and was elected Mayor four times in the 1870s. The adobe house was constructed in 1865 and bought by Logan in 1868. It was moved to this spot from Sixth St. near Main in 1970 to save it. The Thomas E. Logan House stayed in the family until 1914 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The Logan House is next to the Lewis and Clark Discovery Pavilion (a covered shelter) and two more buildings moved here: the 1863 Coston log cabin and the small frame Adelmann House, forming Pioneer Village.

Buildings made of sunbaked brick were common in the early years of Euro-American settlement of Boise City. Only one of the fragile adobe buildings have survived unaltered, the Thomas E. Logan House, built in 1865 by Charles W. Slocum. Most other adobe buildings have crumbled and been demolished or have been sided with boards. The Logan House was originally located on Sixth St. between Main and Grove Streets. Slocum was a local merchant of the firm Crawford & Slocum; the house was situated in the vicinity of the store. Mr. Crawford purchased the house from Slocum and then sold it to Logan in 1868 for $2,000. Logan became a dry goods merchant and was appointed the town's postmaster in 1869. The Post Office was then on Main St. between Seventh and Eighth Streets. Logan served on the city council and as the city's treasurer. He was elected Mayor of Boise City four times in the 1870s.

Thomas Emerson Logan was born in New York State in 1834. In 1864, he emigrated via wagon train with his wife and two young children from Wisconsin to Idaho. His daughter (Caroline, age 5) died on the journey but his infant son, Leonard, born in July 1863, survived. By 1870, the 35-year-old Boise City merchant owned $4,500 in real estate and $1,400 in personal property. Thomas' wife, Caroline (age 30); son Leonard (6); and a 36-year-old female schoolteacher named Franc[e]s Leonard (Caroline's sister) shared Thomas' home; all three were listed in the census as Wisconsin-born, but Caroline was actually born in Utica, New York.

In 1872, Logan nearly doubled the size of his one-story house by adding a front porch and a wood frame, side addition. The house measured 32 by 22 feet, plus the side addition of about 10 by 8 feet. The original interior plaster is 3/4-inch mud, and a newer plaster was 1/8-think lime plaster. The exterior was painted brown with an oil-based paint sometime before 1872; this was discovered in 1970 when the addition was temporarily removed; part of the original shingle roof also was revealed. The multiple layers of exterior paint probably saved the soft adobe bricks from disintegrating.

Logan had a stroke in 1893 and passed away in 1894 while returning by train from California, where he had traveled for medical treatment. Thomas' son, Leonard married Grace Coffin, the daughter of Thomas Coffin, in 1889. Leonard and his family lived in a house that he owned in 1900 at 2001 Eleventh Street; the 36-year-old was a retail shoe dealer. Caroline Leonard Logan passed away in 1908 in Boise at age 71; she is buried with her husband in Pioneer Cemetery. The Logan family sold the Thomas E. Logan House in 1914. Later owners rented out the home, by then located within the city's business district.

Mountain Bell, the local telephone utility company, bought the house in 1970. The lot around the house had been used as a paved parking lot for years, and Mountain Bell planned to raze the house to create more parking spaces. To save the house from demolition, the company agreed that the building could be removed. A fundraising campaign soon supplied the funds, and the porch addition was detached before the house was moved to Julia Davis Park. Mountain Bell donated the house to the Idaho Historical Society to be preserved and restored for interpreting pioneer life to the public. The Logan House is now part of Pioneer Village, a cluster of historic buildings adjacent to the Idaho State Museum, in the park's northwest corner. The original location of the house underwent archaeological investigations in the summer of 2020 to gain further insights into the domestic life of Boise City's pioneers. There is an historical marker next to the house; Pioneer Village is fenced off from access along the River Street sidewalk but can be viewed from the road or the sidewalk. To get a closer look and read the interpretive sign, Pioneer Village is accessed through the museum and there is an admission charge. Prices in 2023 were: Adults (18-59): $10; Active Military & Veterans: $8; Seniors (60+): $8; College Students (w/ID): $8; Children/Youth (6-17): $5; Children 5 and under: Free; Members: Free.

Anonymous. "Historical Notes: Block Number Sixty-Six." The Idaho Scimitar (Boise) January 11th, 1908. 9-9.

Board of Trustees. Necrology: Leonard Logan. Twelfth Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society of Idaho, vol. 12, 113 - 132. Published January 1st, 1930. Google Books.

Habben, David B. Memorial for Caroline Leonard Logan (1836-1908), Find a Grave. June 22nd, 2003. Accessed February 13th, 2023. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7605795/caroline-logan.

Habben, David B. Memorial for Thomas Emerson Logan (1834-1894), Find a Grave. June 20th, 2003. Accessed February 13th, 2023. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7598968/thomas-e-logan.

Hart, Arthur A. NRHP nomination of Mayor Thomas E. Logan House, Boise, Idaho. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1971.

Idaho Heritage Trust. The Logan House, Projects & Grants: Ada County. January 1st, 2023. Accessed February 13th, 2023. https://www.idahoheritagetrust.org/projects-grants/the-logan-house/.

Idaho State Historical Society. Visit, Idaho State Museum. January 1st, 2023. Accessed February 13th, 2023. https://history.idaho.gov/museum/.

Levy, Ken. Explore Boise History at Pioneer Village. Greenbelt. May 2nd, 2014.

Phillips, Sarah. Idaho State Historical Museum, Local Wiki. May 5th, 2011. Accessed February 13th, 2023. https://localwiki.org/boise/Idaho_State_Historical_Museum.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of Thomas E. Logan in Boise City, Ada County, Idaho Territory, dwelling 570, family 500. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1870.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of Leonard Logan at 2001 Eleventh St., Boise District 5, Idaho, dwelling 223, family 230. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1900.