Idaho Statesman

Reprinted from the Idaho Statesman, May 8, 2010
By Bethann Stewart

Preservation Idaho leaders say they did not want to publicly confront the Boise School District for the second year in a row.

But months after they dinged the district with the smellier of their annual Orchids and Onions Awards for destroying South Junior High, built in 1948 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the district made two more decisions that sparked even more outrage.

By Erin Ryan - The Idaho Statesman
Edition Date: 10/19/07

BOISE - Richard Nickel once said, "Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men."

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.

Reprinted from the Idaho Statesman, June 21, 2008
By Anna Webb

Reprinted from the Idaho Statesman, June 28, 2009
By Statesman Staff

Preservation Idaho's 32nd annual awards were given Saturday in Nampa.

The Orchids, for positive contributions to historic preservation, went to:

Distinguished Preservationist:

Ann Swanson, Boise, for 25 years of Idaho preservation work.

Friend of Preservation:

Patricia Eames, McCall, for her work to preserve historic McCall.

Some Boiseans have mixed feelings about the destruction of Cole, which was built in 1888.

Bethann Stewart, Idaho Statesman

August 12, 2009 - Ami Rumble's husband and two of her kids spent several years at Cole, which they loved, she wrote in an e-mail.

But the economy has hit everyone hard, she said.

Preservationists had hoped at least part of the historic buildings could be saved.

Bethann Stewart, Idaho Statesman

August 11, 2009 - The Boise School Board voted unanimously Monday to tear down two former elementary schools in the hopes of making the properties more attractive to potential buyers.

"The administration feels strongly if we get those properties off, we'll have a better chance of selling (the land)," Boise School District spokesman Dan Hollar said before Monday's meeting.

Proposed site is a mile from Minidoka camp where Japanese were held

By Anna Webb - The Idaho Statesman
Edition Date: 10/02/07

When Japan attacked the United States in 1941, Gus Tanaka was 19, a student at Reed College in Portland, the son of an American-born doctor.

"The FBI was ringing our doorbell four hours after Pearl Harbor," he said.

A proposed feedlot near the Minidoka national monument meets all state and federal standards, an attorney says.

By Anna Webb, Idaho Statesman
Edition Date: 09/28/07

Karen Yoshitomi and Janeil Stewart both brought family photographs to the Jerome County Courthouse Tuesday.

They were there to testify against a proposal by Big Sky Farms of Eden to build a 13,000-cow feedlot a mile from the Minidoka Internment National Monument.

Anna Webb, Idaho Statesman

September 20, 2007 - Few tangible remnants of the Minidoka Internment Camp remain, said Dan Everhart of Preservation Idaho.

The few that do include a potato cellar built by internees and a memorial garden in tribute to the Japanese American soldiers who served and died in the war.

August 16, 2007 – The Jerome County Commissioners will soon vote on a proposal to locate a huge concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) just over one mile from — and upwind of — the site of the Minidoka Relocation Center. Minidoka commemorates the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and encourages us to recognize the importance of protecting our constitutional rights — but this mission will be hampered if the CAFO is approved.