From Ugly Ducking To Beautiful Swan...

A couple of years ago, Hidden Springs began it's final stage of building. Alongside our beautiful barn was an old house with broken windows. It was still inhabited by a family who had lived here for years - long before Hidden Springs began development. They farmed the valley we live in today.

The old farmhouse was scheduled to be demolished to make room for some high end lots since it was nestled among mature trees, located right along the creek. A few people saw the potential of this home to be something special for our community and started doing research.

Phillip L. Schick homesteaded the property in the early 1860s. Schick later built the house. Members of the Schick family lived in the house from the 1860s until 1920 when it was sold to Frank Parsons, a gentleman farmer who lived in Boise. Parsons hired Basque farmers from Spring Valley Ranch to manage the property. In 1927, the family of Costan and Lucia Ostolasa moved into the farmhouse where their descendants lived until 2005.

The farmhouse is about 140 years old and is one of the oldest intact houses in Ada County.

The farmhouse was in surprisingly good condition for its age. The sandstone foundation was sturdy and had its original siding with hand-made nails, and many of the windows still had very old glass. Because of its good condition, the farmhouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on August 23, 2006.

People from Hidden Springs came together and started fundraising efforts to save this wonderful piece of history. It's almost completed after only 2 years of hard work by some very dedicated people. They found an actual picture of the original house and were able to restore it back to it's original beauty, including the upstairs balcony and gingerbread work.



It's going to be open to the public and used for school projects such as living history days. How lucky we are to have such a wonderful old home as part of our community.