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.