Randolph-Robertson, Hillcrest, the Highlands and a handful of other Bench and foothills subdivisions account for most of the city's postwar housing stock. Here is what each neighborhood offers and what it costs.
The land under the Hillcrest Country Club fairways was a 160-acre homestead purchased in 1892. The clubhouse was designed by Tourtelotte and Hummel, architects of the Idaho State Capitol. Ernest Day brought the Parade of Homes to the Bench in 1957, and one of the houses earned national recognition from Architectural Record. The neighborhood still holds one of the largest concentrations of mid-century residential architecture in Idaho.
Before Richard B. Smith broke ground in 1955, the land was called Slaughterhouse Gulch. Smith renamed it, gave the streets Scottish names, dressed his salesmen in tartan jackets and staged Boise's first Parade of Homes on Crane Creek Road. Five generations later his family still sells real estate on the same ground. The median sale price is $850,000.
Duffy Randolph built his own house out of overburned reject bricks in the early 1940s, starting with the basement. After the war he finished it, moved out and kept building with his partner Fred Robertson. The clinker brick ranch homes they produced across the Bench earned the neighborhood a Preservation Idaho Heritage Home Tour and a feature in Atomic Ranch magazine. Homes start below $400,000.
Patrick Irvin runs a one-man woodworking studio in Boise building mid-century modern credenzas, record consoles and bathroom vanities by hand from premium walnut. He got started after growing up around his great-grandparents' Danish-modern furniture. Every piece is individually numbered and ships nationally.
Matt Wordell of Visionkit Studio and Greg Hahn of Surel's Place started the fund to solve a specific problem. Emerging mural artists in Boise had no middle-ground commissions to build a portfolio on before competing for the larger public art jobs. The fund connects donors and businesses with those artists and puts the work on walls in Garden City.
Aaron Rodriguez and Matt Wordell met volunteering as photographers for Treefort Music Fest in 2014. In 2020 they opened an 8,000-square-foot converted warehouse in Garden City. The client list now includes Fuji, Whole Foods, Snake River Farms, St. Luke's and Visit Boise. Wordell is simultaneously pursuing a PhD in public policy focused on Idaho's creative economy at Boise State.
