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 I first visited Shiloh in the summer of 1969 when the house was on Cole Road. It was a lofty, two-story farm house with a front yard shaded by tall trees. It has since been turned into a commercial complex for dentists.
A year or so later Shiloh moved to THIS house. It was on Jefferson Street near downtown Boise, about 4 blocks from the Capitol Building. Before we moved in the house had been a drug treatment center called the Charnel House. At the time I was very young and didn't know that a charnel house was a house where the dead were brought. A sister named Sherrie and I washed the living room windows and cleaned the dried vomit off the window seat.
Although I missed the old house this one had charms of its own. First, the porch. Originally it was completely screened in and wrapped entirely around to the back of the house. You can see on the second photograph that the back room is porchless. The original porch extended to the end of the house, bordering this room. The porch was divided into three separate rooms and the one right off the dining room had a chandelier. I always imagined that the back room was a music room since it had so many beautiful paned windows.
Forgive me for dwelling on the architecture but as a young teen I was spellbound by it. When you entered the front door there was a stairway directly to your left. Upstairs there were three bedrooms and a bathroom, two of the bedrooms were adjoining. To the right, as you entered downstairs, was the living room where we had Bible studies. As you stood in the doorway, slightly to your right was a river stone fireplace. The front doorknob was inscribed with the words 'Hull House'. At the turn of the century Jane Addams had founded one of the first settlement houses in Chicago. This was one of its sister houses. This house has a long and beautiful history of ministering to people.
Behind the stairway was a tucked in area where one could nestle unnoticed. The foyer led directly into the dining room which had a beautiful sideboard. The music room was at the end of the dining room to the left. The kitchen was to the right. It was a huge affair, massive, designed for many women to gather and cook together. It was very well lit. Behind it was the pantry and the back stairway. Behind that was the back door where the brothers parked their trucks.
 I graduated from high school in 1974. Greg Applegate was the pastor at the time. I adored his wife Ramona who sang like an angel. Greg warned me against going to college because I would be required to take science classes which might contradict the Bible. After that I quit going to Shiloh. I knew I was going to college and knew that God was not so small that He could be threatened by book learning.
In 1976 I was married. It was an ill-fated arrangement. At the time I was working at a Chinese restaurant and was very isolated. My only friend was a Viet Namese immigrant named Mai. She was from an upper class background and very bitter about working as a waitress in America. Finally I quit, against the wishes of my husband, and went to work at a more popular 'bistro.' Bistros and perrier were the hot tickets back then. I made lots of new friends and fell in love with the chef. I followed him one night to a dance where we professed our love and he took me to his home. And his home was this very house!
The folks from Shiloh had moved away earlier and a fellow named Patrick Terry was leasing the house. We all became fast friends and spent many happy autumn days baking apple pies in that great, old fashioned kitchen. Later the house was sold for $4000 and the promise to move it off the Jefferson Street property. When I took these pictures it had been moved to Crescent Rim, a wealthier neighborhood overlooking the city.
In 1978 I took a couple of photos with my mom's old Brownie box camera, one is of everyone in the Cole Road house and the other is a small group of friends.
[Back to Poppy Dixon's biography]
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