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Welcome to The Bishops' House.

PRESERVING PART OF BOISE'S HERITAGE

"The Friends of The Bishops' House" is a non-profit organization dedicated to the historic preservation of this grand old building. This beautiful building was once home to a succession of the Episcopal Bishops of Idaho. Each of the men who served as the head of Episcopal Diocese of Idaho lived in this home with their families while serving in the capacity as the Episcopal Bishop of Idaho. The original house was built in the late 1880's and was remodeled to its current stately, towered Queen Anne style Victorian home in 1899.

CHOOSE THE BISHOPS' HOUSE FOR YOUR NEXT EVENT

To schedule your event The Bishops' House, please give Amelia Berg a call at (208) 342-3279.

  • Weddings
  • Receptions
  • Meetings
  • Seminars
  • Conferences
  • Business Retreats
  • Photoshoots
  • Baby Showers
  • Holiday Parties
  • Art Exhibits
  • Antique Fairs
  • Music Presentations
  • Teas & Parties
  • Fundraisers
  • Reunions
reservation info
upcoming event

St. Patrick's Day Event

SOLD OUT

March 17, 2023 from 6:30pm - 9:00pm. Join us for a traditional St. Patrick's Day Far of corned beef and cabbage. Entertainment by Johnathan Perry.

More Event Info
The Friends of the Bishops' House, INC.

Annual Report - March 26, 2023

April of 2022 to the present found The Bishops’ House not requiring masks but being very careful in our cleaning procedures trying to keep everyone healthy. We have been very busy with many different events this year. Omicron Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma have held their monthly meetings at the house all year as have the Warm Springs Water Board. The Bishops' House Writers’ Collective used the Grooms’ Room (New Sumac Room) to gain inspiration for poems and short stories. This group has grown and will continue to write with us. The Boise Belles, a Boise fashion group of the 1940s-60s, helped us entertain fund raisers and held meetings as did the We Wear History ladies who sponsored a Vampire’s Ball at Halloween as a fundraiser for The Bishops’ House.

The Parlor was opened eight times on Sunday afternoons for the public to view the restorations of the past few years. At Christmas time we opened the house twelve evenings for the public to enjoy the many decorated trees in true Victorian fashion. Tours were given for the Boise area Retired Teachers Association and the Meridian Senior Center. Staff and volunteers from the Old Penitentiary toured the house to learn more about their neighbors. We have decorated a cell at the Old Pen for their Halloween activities over the past three years.
Sixteen couples held their wedding festivities with us along with a bridal shower, two baby showers, a birthday party, a graduation party, four Celebrations of Life, and two holiday parties at Christmas time. We can’t forget the Bards in the Yard this past summer with The Merry Wives of Windsor. Fun was had by all on those two evenings and an afternoon matinee!

We hosted a luncheon for the long running PBS series, the Antique Roadshow, on Memorial Day weekend when they visited Boise and filmed next door at the Botanical Gardens. We continue to thank all who participated in Idaho Gives last May for their generous donations. Just recently we used a most generous matching grant which we received from the Idaho Heritage Trust to restore the hard wood floors on the second level. They are beautiful, especially the Bride’s Room (new Rose Room). We had new carpet installed on the stairs and hallway with additional donations.

Our Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day Dinners were very well attended and enjoyed by our guests. We are looking forward to our Mother’s Day Tea and Idaho Gives in May. Mother Nature played tricks on us this fall, so we have a lot of fall/spring garden work to do very soon. We are looking forward to dedicating our new rose garden which we worked on last year, adding 8 new roses (2 more will be planted this spring) and a new bench with plaque space reserved for individuals to memorialize loved ones. The dedication is planned for this summer.

Our many thanks go to the gentlemen who maintain the properties owned by the State of Idaho. We are eagerly awaiting new paint on the outside of the house and a new roof, both of which are desperately needed.

The Friends of The Bishops’ House are looking forward to another very active year with our events and several restoration activities. Thank you for your continued support.

—The Board of Directors

Juno Van Ocker, President; Judi Gabriel, Vice President; Janet Tweedle, Secretary/Treasurer; Camille Meadows, Judy Holtz, and Jean Cassell

Amelia M. Berg, Executive Director

Become a Member of Friends of The Bishops' House

We are pleased to once again be offering memberships for our community to join The Friends of The Bishops’ House—the non-profit organization that takes care of The Bishops’ House!

Your membership funds will go towards physically preserving and sustaining this wonderful historic Boise treasure, keeping it accessible to the community, and continuing our ability to share—and write—its story for generations to come.

Join us by choosing one of the following membership options today:

Annual Friend ($50 per year) benefits include:

- Admission to our “First Look” Victorian Holiday Open Parlor exclusive donor-only event
- 10% off all dinners and events hosted by The Bishops’ House—up to $25 savings!
- 1 general admission to the Idaho Botanical Garden—$8 value
- 1 general admission Old Penitentiary—$6 value

Monthly Friend ($30 per month for one year) benefits include:

- All Annual Friend benefits
- One FREE mid-week rental of up to 4 hours per calendar year

Sustaining Friend $100 or more per month benefits include:

- All Annual AND Monthly Friend benefits
- 25% off any one regular rental per calendar year

Each year the giver of our top membership gift will be added to a plaque on display at The Bishops’ House!


* Friends of The Bishops' House is a 501C3 nonprofit. Donations may be tax deductible. Consult your tax advisor.

Shopping Online?

YOU CAN SUPPORT THE FRIENDS OF THE BISHOPS' HOUSE WHEN YOU SHOP AMAZON!

Be sure to log in to your Amazon account at smile.amazon.com, and choose “Friends of the Bishops House Inc” as your designated nonprofit.A small percentage of any eligible purchases will go towards preserving and sustaining our historic home whenever you order through smile.amazon.com Please take that extra step and start your purchase at smile.amazon.com to support our efforts here at The Bishops’ House

Calendar of Upcoming Events
check back for new events in 2018

Contact Skip Critell if you're interested in a living historian at your next event.

Feb 2
Assisted Living, Caldwell, Idaho
Feb 14
Awana Council Time- Ten Mile Community Church, Meridian, Idaho
Feb 15
Awana Council Time- Lake Hazel Bible Church, Boise
March 5
Idaho Territory Celebration, State Capitol, Boise
March 11
Wedding- Independence of the Seas- Mexico
April 7
Park Day( Cemetery Clean up)
April 19
Patriot Day, Idaho State Capitol
May 5
Eagle Island Living History Event, Eagle Island State Park
May 18
West Ada School Dist. 4th Grade Rendezvous (Closed Event)
May 19
Parade America, Nampa, Idaho
May 28
Memorial Day Services, Boise, Idaho
June 2
Global Villages, Ontario, Oregon 11 to 4pm
June 7
Pioneer School Play- Centennial High
June 9
Fort Boise Days   Parma, Idaho
Sept 8
IFARM-Jerome County Historical- Twin Falls, Idaho
Oct 6-7
Gem County River Through Time- Emmett
Nov 10
Veteran’s Day Parade, Boise, Idaho
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
abraham lincoln
A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.
abraham lincoln
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
abraham lincoln
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
abraham lincoln
Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
abraham lincoln
I do the very best I can, I mean to keep going. If the end brings me out all right, then what is said against me won't matter. If I'm wrong, ten angels swearing I was right won't make a difference.
abraham lincoln
Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
abraham lincoln