The Boldman House Museum

The original house, built in 1880, started as a small three-room home. Joseph and Rosine Wolfstein owned it until 1883, when it was sold to John and Ella Brining. John Brining was a respected Dayton philanthropist who started in the sheep business, became a salesman with the Dayton Woolen Mill, later was a retailer, and then moved into real estate. He was elected to the city council, served as City Treasurer, and donated land for the city hospital.

By 1891 Brining had enlarged the house by adding a two-story section, a basement, and extending the back of the house. The house was sold to Oath Long in 1900, then to C.C. Hubbard in 1904.

Sometime between 1896 and 1909 the bay windows, the second floor balcony, and the entry foyer were added. These additions reflect the Queen Anne style popular at the time and make the house the graceful Victorian home we see today.

In 1912, Stephen A. Boldman and his wife, Blanche Porter Boldman, purchased the house. Stephen farmed wheat at Covello but wanted his daughters to have access to the schools in town. Thus, he and Blanche moved with their four daughters—Minnie, Marie, Goldie, and Gladys—from their Covello farm to the house in town.

For the next 87 years, the Boldman family lived in the house. Minnie, the oldest Boldman daughter, passed away at age 26 in the flu epidemic of 1919. When Mr. Boldman passed away in 1954, Goldie and Gladys, the youngest daughters, were the only remaining family members and they continued to live in the house.

In 1999, Miss Gladys M. Boldman, the last surviving member of the family, died at the age of 91 and left her estate to the Dayton Historical Depot Society. Miss Boldman’s will and letters directed that her home be restored to its original (1912) condition, and that it become a community resource and educational “showplace”.

A Boldman House Committee, established by and under the direction of the Dayton Historical Depot Society, continues to carry out Miss Boldman’s vision. The house remains much the same as it did in 1912 and is one of Dayton’s significant examples of the Queen Anne style. The only changes are a new entrance to the basement and remodeling of some small back rooms to serve as a museum office and storage area.

The house and its contents form an extraordinary and unique time capsule. Because everything in the house belonged to one nuclear family of savers, the variety and volume of these artifacts give a unique and detailed history of a family and how they lived and interacted with the community and the changing times.

Artifacts Architectural Consulting of Tacoma guided the restoration and needed repairs of the structure. Dedicated volunteers received training and attended seminars to learn how to preserve and care for the collection. Caring for and preserving the 130+ year old house continues. Cataloging and care of the extensive collection of artifacts is still underway.

Born in 1908, Gladys M. Boldman was four years old when her family moved to the Dayton house. She graduated from Dayton High School
—class of 1926 1/2—and then attended business college in Walla Walla. Miss Boldman became a career woman, starting as a secretary at the Marcus Whitman Hotel in 1930. She later worked as a secretary and bookkeeper at the New Governor Hotel and the Olympian Hotel in Olympia and the Boise Hotel in Idaho. Of the four Boldman daughters, Gladys was the only one to leave home and pursue her own career. By the 1940s, Mr. and Mrs. Boldman, along with their second oldest daughter, Marie, were ailing. Thus, Gladys came home upon her mother’s death in 1944 to help her sister, Goldie, care for their father and older sister.

Although Goldie and Gladys were quiet and reserved, they were active in the Pythian Sisters society and did seasonal work at the Dayton Green Giant cannery. Both were proud of their pioneer heritage and community roots and enjoyed traveling. Gladys particularly liked Switzerland.

Miss Boldman lived in the family home until just before her death at 91 years old. Besides the bequest to the Dayton Historical Depot Society, her will also bequeathed funds for the care and preservation of the Pioneer Cemetery just outside of Dayton. Miss Boldman, together with her family, is buried there.

During the removal of numerous layers of wallpaper during the Boldman House restoration, the Society discovered that the oldest layer of wallpaper had been installed on muslin over wood plank walls. A few rooms in the house still had an original layer of wallpaper in good condition. In other rooms, the original layer of wallpaper had been covered over the years. The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum helped identify the age and origin of the oldest layers of wallpapers. In cases where the oldest layer was no longer visible, the Society was able to order replica wallpaper with the Cooper Hewitt guidance. The intact original rosebud-strewn paper in the upstairs bedroom was purchased from Sears in 1925. The design of the stairwell and kitchen replica papers date to the 1890s, which is when the house became a Queen Anne Victorian.

Samples of the faded original wallpapers were reproduced by Wolff House Wallpapers. Jim Yates of Historic Wallpaper Specialties, who specializes in installing wallpaper on muslin, was contracted for the installation. The stairwell paper was installed to duplicate the original paperhanger’s work.

The Boldman House Garden Committee, an all-volunteer group dedicated to the restoration of the Boldman grounds, developed a complete garden plan in 2002. The committee worked from the garden plan and from the vision for the garden written by Miss Boldman in a 1988 letter. The garden is styled to replicate a 1910–1920 era American garden, featuring those heirloom perennial, shrub, and tree cultivars that would have been available to American gardeners of that time period. Occasionally, improved cultivars had to be substituted for the sake of disease resistance.

Donations by gift and in memory of loved ones funded the garden project, and funds from the Boldman House Self-sustaining Endowment provide for ongoing maintenance of the grounds.

The garden serves as an educational resource for visitors to learn more about the history and requirements of the plants and about gardening in this climate. An informational brochure lists the plants’ Latin and cultivar names, their placement in the garden, and the names of the donors.

Stephen Boldman bought a 1934 Chevrolet Master Deluxe sedan after a two-year search for a replacement for his 1917 Huppmobile. According to his daughter Marie’s diary, car dealers from Dayton and neighboring communities tried to sell him a car, even bringing cars to the house for the family to try out!

Stephen and his daughter Goldie were the main drivers. After Stephen’s death in 1954, Goldie and her sister Gladys were infrequent drivers. It appears that they stopped driving in the late 1960s and later sold the car in 1977 to Richard G., a hometown fellow who was living on the west side of the state. One of the stories that his family tells is that he had promised the Boldman sisters that if they wanted the car back, he would sell it to them.

The Boldman House Museum is extremely grateful to Richard and his family for offering us the first chance to buy the car when they decided to sell it.

The museum manager and two intrepid volunteers brought the car back to Dayton in May 2017, and we were proud to add it to our collection and show it off to museum visitors as well as drive it in local parades!