Montana, Day 1

Sunday we were up and out of the house by 0245 and standing in (the very short) lines at LAX around 0330 for our 0600 flight to Salt Lake City and on to Kalispell.

Long Beach/San Pedro area harbors

We had a very short layover in SLC - I calculated it at 30 minutes but the flight attendant said it was 51 min, “plenty of time”. Yeah, 51 min from the time the wheels touched down, not when we arrived at our gate. 

 On our way before sunrise

We haven’t hustled that fast between gates in a looooooong time. 

 Greetings from Kalispell airport 

Our house in Hungry Horse wasn’t ready until after 4 pm, so once Teena arrived about 1:30, we headed into Kalispell and the Conrad Mansion. 

I wish I could remember all the things our (excellent) tour guide said about this house. 

Built in 1895 by Charles and Alicia Conrad, it has 3 floors, not counting the attics and full basement, 23 rooms, and remained in the same family until it was donated to the city in 1975. Over 90% of the furnishings are original to the house.

 Mrs. Conrad’s music room

The house the Conrad’s designed was well ahead of its time. Charles built an electrical power plant beside the river, running miles of lines overland to supply the house with electricity as it was being built. 

The kitchen was amazing. A full pantry, huge stove with an unusual barbecue section (top left) and several ovens and warming units. 

I also like the aluminum ice box from 1910

and the photo of how the ice was harvested. 

A photo showed the original maids and butler, part of the staff of 24 required to run the house.

Each bedroom had its own Italian marble sink with hot and cold running water,

fancy radiator,

 Teddy Roosevelt slept here

and some also had toilets 

 The elephant toilet was my fav, of course

or chamber pot holders. 

(Note the in-wall cabinetry.)

There was an elevator, a couple of cold water faucets set in the walls for family and guests to use, a trunk room (see the curved lid? The guide said that’s where the term “first class” originated - nothing could be set atop the curved lid so these were always first off the boat or train.),

a fernery off the dining room (remember, this is Montana - keeping that warm year-round would have been expensive.)

and beautiful bottle glass windows throughout the house. This one overlooks the main stairway and opens into the daughter’s bedroom.

Oh, and a free-standing (no mortar or cement used) rock wall around the entire property. (More on the mansion after our home-away-form-home pics…)

Our home for the next 6 days is in Hungry Horse, about 10 miles from the west entrance to Glacier National Park - 

3 bedrooms, 2 baths, split level house on a wooded lot, just down the street from the original huckleberry pie store. This is going to be fun!

 

According to our guide, the oldest son had huge outstanding gambling debts and wanted to turn the first floor of the mansion into a casino and the second floor into a brothel… which is why the younger daughter took control of the house and business.