108 Park Street
Charles H. Doenges arrived in Thompson Falls in the year 1903 or 1904. By 1905, he had built a two-story office building on Upper Railroad Avenue that became the first home of county government in Sanders County. Doenges operated a contractor/building supplies business and is responsible for constructing many of the buildings in town during the years 1905-1914. This house was constructed for his brother (?) Louis who never resided in the town. It may be the house was built as a rental in anticipation of a housing shortage caused by the coming Thompson Falls Power Company's dam project. Ada Moser, wife of William Moser, bought the house in 1915. William Moser worked as a sub foreman for the Thompson Falls Power Company and later became the town's postmaster.
This one story residence has an exterior covering of shingle siding on sheathing, a hipped roof of asbestos shingles, and rests on a concrete foundation. Dormers with casement windows face north and west. The west (front) features an open porch covered by the roof, with a pier foundation and lattice work between. Off the porch is an entrance door with sidelights that leads to an antechamber and a window bay of 3 double hung windows with cames, the center with a colored glass design of two candles, 3 bells, and a ribbon for its upper pane. The north side includes a window box of 4 double hung windows of 7 panes and a 2-paned casement window off a remodeled porch area. The window box extends to the roof line under the flared eaves. The east includes the remodeled porch area that is now part of the interior kitchen. A 2-pane casement window and an entrance up wood steps looks into this area. The south side has 2 fixed 2 casement, and a basement window. A cinder block stack is located on the north side along with an interior brick stack. The houses' interior has kept its high ceilings except for the remodeled kitchen. A familiar interior motif of columns separating the living and dining rooms is present.
This house is almost an exact duplicate of the houses located at 916 Preston Avenue, 13 Pond Street and 1012 Preston Avenue, which is likely the result of Doenges' use of a pattern book for the basic design. Each of the houses were built in either 1911 or 1912 on the west side of Thompson Falls, the area which grew most rapidly in ca.
1910. Except for a slightly remodeled back porch, the house at 112 Park Street is virtually intact and exhibits several Bungalow style design features such as narrow lap siding, exposed rafter ends, and a front porch under the hip roof supported by battered columns. Charles Doenges built at least 17 dwellings in Thompson Falls between 1905-1913.
From the Architectural Inventory