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O'Farrell Cabin
 History
Early Boise homes were built within the townsite by families with names now better recognized as streets: O'Farrell, Logan and Pierce. The O'Farrell cabin, built in 1862, now stands on Fort Street near Lincoln School. The Coston cabin, originally located east of town; and the Pierce cabin now stand with the Mayor Thomas E. Logan house next to the Idaho State Historical Museum in Julia Davis Park. The O'Farrell Cabin site was dedicated in 2002.
Even before Fort Boise was raised, soldier John O'Farrell constructed a simple log cabin for his 17-year-old bride and it eventually became home to 7 children. The O'Farrell Cabin, regarded as Boise's first, stands in its original location at 4th and Fort streets. It later was used as Boise's first school and for its first Roman Catholic Mass.
The cabins, like most early Boise homes, were made from logs cut from the nearby cottonwood trees which line the river. Cottonwood logs, while not as sturdy as the pine found over the ridge, required only a short haul to the townsite.
In 1863 a U.S. Army post was built on the 67-acre site of Fort Boise to defend travelers between the fledgling supply center on the Boise River and the rich new mining settlements in the nearby Rocky Mountain foothills.
The cabin was listed on the National Historic Register in 1999.
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