Standrod House

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American Revolution Bicentennial ☆ 1776-1976

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Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 8, 2024

1. Standrod House Marker

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West.

America,

Hemisphere,

World,

Anglosphere.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 8, 2024

2. Standrod House Marker

The marker is mounted on the left side of the front/west entrance.

From the National Register Nomination prepared by Merle Wells, 2/24/1972:
The Standrod house has a significant place in Idaho's cultural history representing as it does one of the finest examples of the French Renaissance Revival in the state, and one of the most impressive private mansions built here in the nineteenth century. Drew W. Standrod came to Idaho from Kentucky and was elected district attorney as an Independent Anti-Mormon in 1886. While serving his second term, he became a member of the Idaho Constitutional Convention in 1889. Then he was elected district judge in 1890, a post he held until 1899. Later he served on Idaho's state public utilities commission in 1913-1914. He had extensive interests in eleven banks and had become a bank president two years before his mansion was built.

Local variations, probably the invention of its unknown designer, alter but little the essential French Renaissance chateau character of the building. The round corner tower, probably the most distinctive feature of the “Standrod Castle,” is in the pure proportions of its historical antecedents. A small tower on the opposite corner of the facade is topped by an open-work metal cone, repeating the shape of the large tower, but giving an almost Baroque touch of picturesqueness to the building. Other metal decoration is found in the roof-comb, where a lacy cast-iron fence forms a graceful transition between building and sky.

A long wooden verandah skirts the west and south sides of the house, following, the contours of the facade. Richly turned balusters and brackets ornament the entire porch, giving a delicate contrast between it and the massive, rusticated sandstone blocks of the house itself. The stone is gray and pinkish in color. There are twelve rooms, totaling 3252 square feet of living space in the house.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 8, 2024

3. Standrod House (northeast elevation)

Excerpt:  The Standrod House, also known as the Standrod Castle, was built in 1897 for Drew William Standrod, a judge, bank president, and Anti-Mormon. The house was designed in the Châteauesque architectural style. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since January 18, 1973.

(By Phillip G. Mead) Excerpt:  The Standrod Mansion was built for Drew W. and Emma Standrod, who helped establish Pocatello as Idaho’s second city. Like other residences in Mormon Southeast Idaho, the house continues a rich tradition of Victorian craftsmanship. Located within what is now the Old Town Historic Residential District, two blocks west of Main Street, the mansion complements downtown’s turreted Romanesque Revival buildings with its rusticated local sandstone quarried from nearby McCammon. Designed by San Francisco architect Marcus Grundfor, the house took an estimated nine years to build; it was completed in 1902. Although typically classified as Chateauesque, it more closely

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 8, 2024

4. Standrod House (north elevation)

aligns with the Scottish Baronial due to its rusticated stone, decorative turrets, and transition corbeling from the upper to the lower story.

The mansion remained in the Standrod family until the 1950s. In 1974, the City of Pocatello purchased the house and carefully restored it for use as a museum and cultural events center. The mansion returned to private use in 1995 and remains a residence today.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 8, 2024

5. Standrod House (northwest elevation)

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 8, 2024

6. Standrod House (west/front elevation)

From the National Register Nomination:  Palatial in its time and place, the Standrod House is still one of the most impressive private homes in Idaho. Like the mansions of many notable men of the late nineteenth century, the house was built as a kind of monument to the social position and wealth of its owner. This is clear from the letter "S" set in a prominent position in the central block of the building, high above the front porch, as well as from its impressive size and the richness of the decoration.