Onion: Demolition of the H.K. Linger House

Idaho Falls, Idaho

The Harrison K. Linger House was constructed in approximately 1910 for this early Idaho Falls attorney. Built of brick in the Craftsman style, the house included half-timbering detail.

Following acquisition by the First Presbyterian Church in 1927, the house was used as the manse until the mid-1970s. Though still in use until relatively recently, the building was demolished in October of 2011 to provide additional surface parking for the congregation.

This building could have been retained, maintained, and re-purposed, but too often a lack of imagination or will leads to an unnecessary loss of Idaho’s history.

In this instance, despite the efforts of the local historic preservation community, Preservation Idaho, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the church chose to demolish this National Register-listed structure and its 100 year old evergreens for an asphalt lot.

This serves as a reminder that dozens of other historic homes in the Ridge Avenue Historic District are threatened in similar ways and their fate will be the same without action by the community at large.