James Castle House

History in the Collister Neighborhood

Historical Sites in the Neighborhood:

  • Edwards Greenhouse

  • Collister’s home site

  • Old Rail Track

  • Home of Dr. Whitehead
    Idaho’s first licensed pharmacist and owner of Whitehead Pharmacy, once a landmark in downtown Boise.

Oregon Trail

An early example of our neighborhood’s rich history includes Goodale’s Cutoff, which runs through our neighborhood formed a spur of the Oregon Trail beginning in Idaho. The cutoff left the trail near Fort Hall, crossed the Snake River Plain to the Lost River, and then turned west to the area of Boise, crossing Camas Prairie. It rejoined the main trail from Ditto Creek to Boise (cutting through our neighborhood below the foothills), then ran to the north of the main trail, crossing the Snake River into Oregon. The cutoff rejoined the main Oregon Trail at the Powder River, near Baker City. In 1862, Tim Goodale led a group of 1,095 people, 338 wagons, and 2,900 head of stock safely from Fort Hall to Old Fort Boise on the cutoff pioneered by Jeffrey. By 1863, seven out of every ten wagons en route from Fort Hall to Boise took Goodale’s Cutoff instead of the main Oregon Trail.

Sycamore Overlay

Sycamore Neighborhood Plan (1998)

The Collister Neighborhood includes one of the oldest neighborhoods to be annexed (voluntarily) by the City of Boise with a low density zoning designation R-1A that has been preserved since 1974.

It’s called the Sycamore Neighborhood and was part of the land purchased by Dr. George Collister in 1897 where he grew over 10,000 peach, plum and other fruit trees until his death in 1935.

The neighborhood was subdivided in 1944 and is bordered by Taft to the south, Sycamore Street to the west, Catalpa Drive to the North and 39th Street to the east. The large lots, setback homes, large gardens and rural feel of the neighborhood appealed to many who built their homes in the neighborhood.

In 1998, the Sycamore Neighborhood residents submitted a plan to the City of Boise to help preserve this “rural area nestled within the urban environment of Boise.”

Our neighborhood has a rich past: from the Oregon Trail to agriculture to historic buildings. We are constantly gathering information about Collister’s history.

If you have images, artifacts, or oral histories, etc. to share, please contact us.