Alum in Action: Jeffery Holley on how every house tells a story
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| Left: Idaho State Historic Preservation Office is located in the Assay Office, built in 1871 and serving as the first major federal government building in the Idaho Territory. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961. Photo (cropped) © CC BY-SA 4.0, Tamanoeconomico Right: Alumnus Jeffery Holley conducting a resurvey of Boise's North End neighborhood. Photo courtesy of J. Holley | |
Jeffery Holley (BArH '24, MArH '25)
Architectural Historian and Architectural Survey Lead, Idaho State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) / Idaho State Historical Society (ISHS)
Recent graduate and architectural historian Jeffery Holley (BArH ’24, MArH ’25) wakes up most mornings in his hometown of Boise, Idaho, and heads out with a camera and a notebook to immerse himself in fieldwork. Since graduation last May, he has been leading a survey of more than four hundred early 20th century houses in the North End of Boise. The homes in this historic neighborhood — the city’s first suburban neighborhood — were last surveyed in the 1980s, and as Holley describes, “Even the most storied homes need to be reintroduced, with care and attention, to ensure their tales are properly told.”
This effort, which Holley describes as “meat and potatoes work,” is an initiative of the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) (part of the Idaho State Historical Society) and the North End Neighborhood Association — and is part of the City of Boise’s planning framework, which includes ten local districts to safeguard the city’s archaeological, architectural, and cultural heritage.
We asked Holley to tell us more about this work, its impact, and what aspects of it get him up each morning ready to document the unique stories in these architectural works with detail, care, and joy.
Which area(s) of Boise does the survey include?
The survey covers the North End of Boise, one of the city’s earliest streetcar neighborhoods. About 5,000 people live there today. This is Phase 1 of a broader effort that will extend across the city.
The North End holds a diverse, modest-scale early 20th-century housing stock unified by its streetscape. Unlike the exclusive enclaves of large houses found elsewhere, the North End developed as a white working- and middle-class suburb served by the streetcar. Mostly Minimal Traditional character homes with modest Queen Anne cottages, bungalows, Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival, and Ranch houses fill small lots in close succession. The variety of styles is bound together by consistent setbacks, a mature tree canopy, and walkable sidewalks, giving the neighborhood both richness and cohesion.
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Tell us more about this initiative leady by the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office — what led to resurveying this historic neighborhood?
Earlier surveys remain in place, but many of the North End survey forms are more than 30 years old. My work layers on top of them, adding depth.
Past efforts gave the most attention to high-style architecture. Everyday houses, the vernacular buildings that fill most blocks, often went unnoticed.
Mid-century homes were also left out because of the National Register’s 50-year rule. The neighborhood association asked for a closer look at these overlooked properties, since they help tell the story of the North End.
The documentation also, in some cases, lacks photographs altogether. Others rely on flat descriptors, such as “pitch roof, wood siding.” From the curb, that could mean a front-gable roof with clapboard siding on a modest Folk Victorian, a jerkinhead roof with board-and-batten cladding on a Tudor Revival, or a low-pitched hipped roof with beaded horizontal boards from the postwar Ranch era.
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| Left: Ranch house with low horizontal massing and inset entry porch. Integrated garage aligned with the main façade. |
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These are distinct architectural forms with different histories — and they sit on parcels shaped by equally telling elements: setbacks, lot width, mature trees, and the rhythm of porches and paths. So, we’re adding to what’s already here, through conducting this updated survey.
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Who benefits from the work?
The benefits are practical and immediate. This resurvey, which integrates National Park Service preservation standards with the North End Neighborhood Association’s local knowledge and engagement, brings clarity and consistency to the historic record.
My survey records whether a property is classified as “contributing” or “non-contributing.” Contributing means the building adds to the historic character of the district. Non-contributing means it does not, either because it has been altered beyond recognition or built outside the period of significance.
City staff, planning and zoning commissioners, and the historic preservation commission use that information when making design review and planning decisions. Residents also gain a fuller picture of their neighborhood and its history.
I hope through this work we give communities the tools to understand, steward, and celebrate the layered character of their neighborhood.
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What do you enjoy about this work?
I smile at every house. Each one represents a dream, the privilege of being able to own a home. Walking block by block, I see those dreams stitched together into a living neighborhood.
I also enjoy the wider puzzles that surface. How car culture has shaped front yards, garages, and curb cuts. How corner lots may support new businesses as the neighborhood grows. How accessory dwelling units enter the mix, sometimes as needed housing, sometimes as an echo of neoliberal policy. And how all of this ties into infrastructure: the capacity of roads, the safety of sidewalks, the demands on water treatment, the access to fresh water and schools.
The neighborhood is not just houses. It is a system, still evolving.
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As a recent graduate of the Master of Architectural History program at UVA, what do you bring from your time at the A-School to this project?
It feels like a coincidence that I grew up in Boise and that the state’s architectural historian also studied at UVA. But the A-School connection mattered right away. In the West, the architectural history program carries weight. Mentioning it has opened doors and started conversations that might not have happened otherwise.
For me, the classes provided a cultural lens to understand architectural history. They gave me a framework for thinking about architecture in broader theories and cultural terms. But they did not prepare me for the daily synthesis of surveys: walking blocks, photographing houses, and evaluating data that shapes planning decisions among diverse parties — I’m continuing to learn that every day.
City and state preservation depends on connecting architecture to people, and people to the decision makers who govern neighborhoods.
The opportunity is to build a civic vocabulary that works across groups — historians, preservationists, residents, and decision makers.
Although residents love their character homes and the feel of their neighborhood, learning to speak about preservation in civic terms takes applied curiosity, steady observation, understanding nuance, and time in conversation.
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What advice do you have for recent graduates of the architectural history program?
Learn the seven aspects of integrity. They are location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. Together they shape how the National Register evaluates whether a resource still conveys its historic character. For example, Location is a house still standing on its original lot. Design is the gable roof and porch layout that give it form. Setting is the tree canopy, sidewalks, and neighboring houses that define its block. Materials might be original wood siding or brick. Workmanship shows in the details like turned porch posts or leaded glass. Feeling is the sense of a 1920s streetcar suburb you get when you walk down the block. Association ties the house to the broader story, in this case, of the city of Boise’s growth.
Learn to speak and write about the character-defining features of contributing resources. The National Register bulletins are a good place to start. They show how to describe details in plain, precise language.
Volunteer with local planning offices, neighborhood associations, or preservation nonprofits. Learn how survey data feeds into design review and zoning.
Get practice on the ground. That experience will anchor the theory you studied and show you how preservation decisions actually unfold.
If you are a designer or planner, think ahead. Consider how the buildings you create could be evaluated as historic resources fifty years from now. By understanding how resources are judged today, you sharpen the work you put into the present.
And above all, practice plain language. Preservation conversations succeed when historians, planners, and residents can all hear themselves in the same sentence.
The preservation field itself is a roller coaster. Resources shift, projects get delayed or dropped, and rules change. That uncertainty creates insecurity. Fortitude matters. Find it in the work, in the people you walk blocks with, and in the conviction that recording a neighborhood has value even when the process feels shaky.
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