Originally built by Mrs. Jemima Duncan as a rooming house for railroad workers, the Samson in the Block's name comes from her new husband, J. A. Samson. The ground floor has housed a myriad of businesses in the past century. In 1982 the block was modernized and converted to condominiums and in 2012 it received a second round of improvements.
A historical marker, placed by the Stumptown Historical Society and the Whitefish Community Foundation, relates a bit of the block's history and is to be found by the Second Street Entrance.
DUNCAN SAMSON BLOCK
This staid old brick building has a rich and colorful history.
The Duncan Samson Block, built in 1910 at a cost of about $32,000, was the third or fourth brick building in the fledgling town of Whitefish. Mrs. Jemima Duncan, a widow who had moved to Whitefish from Kalispell a few years earlier, saw opportunity in constructing a rooming house for employees of the Great Northern Railway, which had just named Whitefish as a division point on its line.
Along the way, she met J. A. Samson, a tie contractor for the railroad, and they were married the same year the building was completed. They set up housekeeping in one of the downstairs apartments. Many of the building's tenants were single young men, and as they married, Mrs. Samson advanced into the real estate business, finding small homes to sell them. Her office was in her apartment.
Although the building always has been primarily an apartment house, over the years it also housed a shoe store, a couple of grocery stores, a succession of chiropractor's offices starting in the 1930s, and a tax-preparation business. In 1982, local contractor Gary Tallman bought the building and carried out a major modernization of the housing units, selling them as condominiums. In the 21st Century the Block, still essentially an apartment house, belongs to the owners of eight second-floor apartments and several main-floor businesses, including a coffee shop, a psychiatrist office, a landscape architect and yes, a chiropractor office. Its exterior differs very little from the sturdy brick structure that rose along Second Street more than a century ago. In early 2012, the owners' association financed improvements, readying the venerable building for a new century.
Sponsored by the Stumptown Historical Society and the Whitefish Community Foundation
From the plaque at the building