The history from Preservation Idaho:
https://www.preservationidaho.org/
The Art Deco-style Travis Apartments building at 1620 W. Bannock Street has been a landmark of its West Downtown neighborhood since its completion in 1937. Kentucky native, Thesdie Frogue Feltner (1874-1963), financed constructed of the two-story, ten-unit building.
A marble dealer in his home state, Feltner and his wife, Leila (1874-1947), moved to Boise in 1902 at which time they established Feltner Memorial Monuments Company, which produced and sold
tombstones from a workshop at the southeast corner of 17th and Main. The son of a minister, Feltner was active in the Methodist church and founded the Sixteenth Street Mission, south of River Street, in
1904.
The City of Boise issued Feltner a building permit on March 25, 1937, to construct an apartment building on the vacant lot at the northeast corner of 17th and Bannock for $20,000. The permit lists Feltner as the contractor and although no architect has been identified, the building was likely designed by a local firm. While the flat-roofed, stucco-clad building is not complex, full-height stepped pilasters wrap each corner
and flank the central entrance. This architectural motif is repeated between each second-story bay with stepped embellishments emphasizing the verticality characteristic of the Art Deco style. Two, one-story
garages at the rear of the building each contain five vehicular bays. The provision of off-street, covered automobile storage space for each of the ten apartments is unusual for the era, but reinforces the growing importance of the personal automobile in American society.
By late September 1937, notices in the Idaho Statesman advertised “strictly modern,” new, three-room apartments for rent at $55 per month. Feltner owned the apartments until his death, but by the end of 1938, they were known as the Travis Apartments. The story behind this name is unclear, but it’s possible they were named for David Travis, a Boisean who specialized in property management and real estate investment.
Early occupants of the building were generally younger, married professionals without children. For example, in 1939, tenants included the general manager of a stocks and bonds company, the secretary-
treasurer of a local heating coal distributor, and two executives at Idaho Power Company. At the height of World War II, U.S. Army servicemen rented seven of the ten units.
Typically employed for commercial and institutional buildings, Art Deco was rarely used for residential buildings. Few residential, Art Deco-style buildings exist in Idaho. The Travis Apartments are an uncommon example of this type and style of architecture and the building is eligible for listing in the
National Register of Historic Places. Not only is it a relatively rare example of Art Deco-style residential architecture, but it also clearly communicates its place in the story of the growth and development of pre-World War II Boise. Furthermore, the property contributes to a wider National Register-eligible
historic district comprised of single- and multi-family development at the west edge of downtown Boise.
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