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Programs > Heritage Homes Tour | ||||||||||||||
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Preservation tour looks at historic Boise homes By Erin Ryan - The Idaho Statesman Nickel was an accidental martyr for preservation. In the 1960s, he discovered the work of legendary architect Louis Sullivan and began photographing it before progress could demolish the best of Chicago's built legacy. Photographs soon turned to salvage missions, and Nickel's home became a graveyard for historical fragments. Read the entire article here! He died trying to save just one more, crushed when the floor of Sullivan's condemned Stock Exchange building collapsed. His extreme methods are as admired as they are routinely discouraged, but his passion lives on in grand and modest preservation, from restoring entire blocks of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans to passing down a single piece of Royal Copenhagen china. On Saturday, people will have a chance to see some of Boise's uniquely preserved history on Preservation Idaho's 6th annual Heritage Homes Tour. (story continues below)
The tour is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the organization, which works to protect Idaho's historic and cultural richness through education and advocacy. That's a formal way of saying it saves precious landmarks from becoming parking lots by helping people recognize their value. "I have always been fascinated by history, and something about buildings in particular always interested me. These were places where the history happened ... the actual, tangible places," said Dan Everhart, president of Preservation Idaho. Everhart left the state for undergraduate and graduate studies in history, museums and historic preservation, but after moving back to Boise five years ago, he made it his mission to save as much of the city's physical past as possible. "People kind of have this assumption that Idaho is less important historically, or that the buildings that make up the built environment are less important because we don't have buildings from the 17th or 18th century," he said. "but every town and every city in Idaho has its own contextual history, its own importance." Contextual history is a big part of this year's Heritage Homes Tour. Participants will walk through the North End's Hays Street Historic District, which was part of Everhart's first preservation effort in Boise. He explained that in 1987, a square block of old homes was set to be demolished and converted to service parking. But "Block 75" was part of the original townsite, built just a few years after the first 10 blocks of Boise were established in 1863. Three of the dozen or so homes were leveled, but a city review led to the creation of a conservation district and a related ordinance stating that no further residential demolition could take place to make room for parking lots. Then in 2003, First United Methodist Church, 717 N. 11th St., which owned the majority of Block 75, made plans to raze the remaining houses, but the surrounding neighborhood stood firmly in opposition. "The neighborhood rallied around it, insisting that it had significance and history of its own and that it needed to be protected," Everhart said. Their protests resulted in the designation of the Hays Street Historic District, and about half of the homes were in good enough condition to be moved and restored. One of those homes now stands alone on the corner of 12th and Hays streets. Jim Walker remembers riding on the roof with a chain saw, cutting carefully through tree branches obstructing the path of the 102-year-old, three-story structure as it traveled from Block 75 to its new lot. (story continues below)
Walker and his wife, Monica, bought the house after living down the street from it for many years. They had dabbled in preservation, but restoring the once-fine building after more than a decade of what Everhart calls "benign neglect" has been bigger than they ever imagined. "What's a word for bigger than big?" Jim asked. "I think it was ‘crazy,' " Monica answered. More than two years into the renovation, the Walkers and their daughters, Alex, 11, and Madison, 8, are pleased with what they've been able to do. They explained that local architecture giant John Tourtellotte (who also helped design the state Capitol building) was commissioned by the wife of a prominent rancher named Albert Beck to draw plans for a family home. It still has the massing or structural details of the Queen Anne style, including a sandstone base and wooden shingles, but it also has craftsmen elements like deep eves and bracketed gables. It's a prime example of a transitional building, but even some of the interior modifications are old enough to be historic — like the first residential elevator in the state of Idaho, which was installed by the Beck family in the '50s before they sold to First United Methodist in 1989. The Walkers have honored quirky details like this and the original feel of the home. They refinished the fir floors and built-in furniture, polished leaded glass and copper door knobs, brought in pieces from other historic homes that couldn't be saved and weather-proofed each individual shingle on the exterior walls. They even spent half their lighting budget to recover the original newel post lamp. It's a likeness of Phyllis, the Greek goddess of spring, trees, wisdom, women's secrets and seeds. Most people would have been content to find a less expensive replica, but the Walkers understand the value of authenticity. They also understand the value of DIY labor. "We came here every single day for two years," Monica said, brandishing an album with what she calls "dirty face pictures" taken during the toughest parts of the remodeling process. "This is more of a 20-year-project, but we want to do it right the first time ... We're trying to preserve that history and that beauty." The tour also explores the Bishop Treinen House, which belongs to the parish of St John's Cathedral, 775 N. 8th St. "It's a building that holds an aura of mystery to it. There are a lot of people in the Catholic community and the community at large who haven't been in that building," Everhart said. It was built in the early 1900s for a man named Alphonsus Glorieux, the state's first appointed bishop. He made a lot of decisions regarding the expansion of Catholicism in Idaho and wanted St. John's Cathedral to be glorious. His adjacent home was more understated, but still impressive. "It has formal state rooms, a drawing room, a library. He used it to entertain dignitaries, political people, spiritual people. The Idaho elite and the elite of the Northwest would have been entertained in that house ... It was really a show place," Everhart said. Over the years, the private residence was converted to a house of discernment and formation, where potential priests study. Acting vocation directors also live there, and they all worship in what was once Glorieux's private chapel. The decor is a mix of donated items and originals, from modern sofas to a walk-in safe that's more than 100 years old. Bishop Kelly's collection of antique dishes is on display, as are traditional robes and murals by the Rev. Hairo Restrepo. The overall aesthetic is no longer turn of the century, but the beauty is in the details. "They're not house museums; they're places where people live and work," Everhart said of the homes on this year's tour. "We encourage people to come, people who aren't necessarily passionate preservationists but who just like old houses, or maybe they've always been curious about what the inside of the Bishop's house looks like." The money raised will support educational programming, advocacy and further preservation efforts, making it possible for people to save pieces of their collective past without going the way of Richard Nickel. As development continues to boom, Idaho's historic places become more and more rare, and more and more likely to need a voice. "Not everyone — as much as I try to preach the gospel — not everyone buys the story, believes these homes are valuable," Everhart said. "It does seem surprising to people who (appreciate) that aesthetic, but that's just not a universal phenomenon. That's why these resources can and will continue to be threatened." Erin Ryan: 672-6732 |
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