Blogs

As much as I love architecture, I also love Americana tchotchkes, especially those featuring American architecture.  The mid part of the twentieth century was perhaps the height of collectible memorabilia, as the automobile made tourism and travel popular and easy. Hitting the road was a favorite American pastime, and all along the way roadside stands offered tourists different knick-knacks to remember their travels by, from coffee mugs to refrigerator magnets. A particular favorite was the souvenir plate. Read more »

The Struggle for Central Addition

Historic preservation is often the art of bringing back to sight that which has been in constant view but is no longer seen. Boise’s diminished but still existing Central Addition is a place many of us have driven by en route to somewhere else, a neighborhood of passing glances and brief impressions at best, but most likely little more than a peripheral blur as you accelerate down Myrtle heading east, or chase the timing of the lights driving west on Front. Yet tucked in between those two corridors, hidden behind the WinCo, is the last remnant of Boise’s earliest urban residential development.

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Or, Curtain Walls and Footballs

Some of the finest architecture to be found in Boise is on the Boise State University campus. From its earliest years as a junior college up to the present day, BSU has been the home of buildings that are beautiful, challenging and compelling, often all at the same time. Read more »

The City of Boise’s Neighborhood Reinvestment Grant winners have been recently announced, and among them are the Veterans Park Neighborhood Association, who received $16000 to create an interpretive trail through their neighborhood. This trail will wend its way through a part of the city I and others have taken to calling the West End.

What, you might wonder, is the West End? Everyone knows about the North End, and the East End has made its claim as a distinct historic place, but what is this West End and why am I calling it that? Read more »

A few weeks ago I toured one of Boise’s most architecturally significant homes from the mid-20th century. Designed by Jedd Jones of the Boise architectural firm of Hummel, Hummel, and Jones, the house at 105 E. Highland Drive was designed in 1967 for Ethel Chapman—owner of The Mode department store in downtown Boise.

As you can imagine, Chapman, Boise’s fashion maven, spared no expense in the commission of her home where modernist design features include interior and exterior walls faced in quartzite, an exquisite, multi-vaulted pavilion roof/ceiling in the living room, and stunning views of downtown. The home is now for sale by its third owner, Dorothy Stimpson who commissioned a sympathetic addition in the late 1990s—going so far as to have the original source of the quartzite re-opened in Oregon. See photos of the house on Preservation Idaho’s Flickr page. Read more »

This year the Boise City Department of Arts & History and TrICA have teamed up with the Boise Public Library to bring this great, free series to Treasure Valley kids called [re]art: art as your child may not have imagined. From breakdancing to culinary creations and Jewish traditions to old timey radio, the goal is to introduce children to artforms outside of the box therefore expanding their creative thinking.

Last Sunday I took my daughters to Folly, Form & Function in Architecture, a re[art] program dedicated to learning about architectural design and getting kids thinking about the structures in their everyday lives. Read more »

So, here I am, writing my first blog post for Preservation Idaho in true 'Amy' fashion.  It's 8pm on a Tuesday night and I've already got my 'jamas on.  I'm cuddled on my couch with a Pillow Pet tucked underneath one arm, my first-grader's spelling papers scattered around me amidst broken pretzel bits and half drunk bottles (of MILK, mind you).  I've got some stale pink Dubble Bubble in my mouth and dinner's dirty dishes still in the sink, but I'm content and coming off my post GLEE high.  I'm writing this on my husband's work laptop because our terrible toddler dropped my new-ish laptop one to many times on it's head and it's screen is now turquoise and it's 'Z' key is missing.  My slightly messy and cluttered world is enhanced by my stellar hubbie and two daughters, Lucy and Alice.  I'm a radical homemaker, a writer, and a preservationist.  Here's how I got here. Read more »

An Introduction to the Author and His Ambitions for this Blog

I first graduated from Boise State University with a BA in History in 1995. I graduated the second time with my Masters in 2010. A long stretch, and I am glad to say that no, I was not in graduate school for a full fifteen years. I re-entered the academic world in 2007, after a full twelve years away. Even though nothing I did in that time really contributed to the establishment or advancement of any kind of proper career, it was not time wasted. My wife and I kicked about, got married, bought a house, traveled a bit, pursued our hobbies and generally lived the life of a childless couple with jobs casual enough to be flexible, yet still paying enough to maintain a decent standard of living. Toward the end of this period, however, I began to get a restless feeling. Brought on, certainly, by friends and peers shaking themselves out of similar interims to return to school, but also by a gradual recognition within me of a specter of historical engagement. I don't recall the exact cause, but midway through the last decade, I began to come across, and then actively seek out, echoes and reminders of a city I once had lived in, but now seemed, in many ways, vanished. Read more »

Welcome to the Preservation Idaho website and its latest addition, this blog. The website was launched without much fanfare about a year ago and is a vast improvement on its predecessor. Over the last year, we have been able to accept donations and event registrations on-line; inform our members, friends, and the public about our mission, purpose, and programs, and more quickly update the site to more effectively communicate with our constituents. Preservation Idaho 2.0, as I like to call it, was made possible by a generous grant from the Idaho State Historical Society through their Community Grant Program. This grant was met with an “in-kind” labor match by the team at Pete Wilson Design Works, Inc., and it was through their liberal donation that the project was conceived, designed, and implemented. Maria Walker, who, as a graphic designer, has been instrumental in the formation of the Preservation Idaho look and brand that we present to the public will continue to serve as webmaster, and without her hard work and dedication, the project would have been stalled indefinitely and the website, if completed, would never be updated with the kind of regularity that our users deserve. Preservation Idaho owes a tremendous debt of thanks to the historical society, Pete Wilson, and Maria Walker for this website which allows us to keep pace with ever-changing technology and remain relevant in this fast-paced, high-speed world. Read more »