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  • One of Idaho’s most significant historic buildings is about to get a renovation

    One of Idaho’s most significant historic buildings is about to get a renovation

    A couple of years ago, the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office pulled one of those April Fools jokes by posting on social media that it had to sell the iconic Assay Office building in Boise to make way for condominiums.

    Fortunately, that was indeed a prank.

    So if you see construction equipment at the building, 210 W. Main St., over the next few months, don’t be alarmed. The historic building dating back to Idaho’s territorial days is not being torn down.

    It’s just being renovated.

    “We think it’s a pretty special building,” Dan Everhart, Idaho State Historic Preservation Office outreach historian, told me in an interview. “We love living in this building. It’s just ready for a little refresh.”

    The Assay Office, built in 1872 by the U.S. Treasury Department to process gold and silver in Idaho’s early mining days, is one of Idaho’s most historically and architecturally significant buildings. It’s one of only four places in Idaho designated as a National Historic Landmark, which is one step above a listing on the National Register of Historic Places and given only to places that are of national significance.

    But at 152 years old, the building needs a little TLC.

    Most of the work, expected to begin in the next couple of months, will take place in the basement, which has become damaged from water infiltration. The bulk of the work will be constructing an underground wall 8-10 feet from the building to protect it from further water damage.

    Dan Everhart, Idaho State Historic Preservation Office outreach historian, explains the damage that’s been done to the walls in the basement of the Assay Office building, 210 W. Main St., Boise. A $1.5 million project will repair and protect the walls and remodel parts of the basement for staff use. Scott McIntosh/smcintosh@idahostatesman.com

    Dan Everhart, Idaho State Historic Preservation Office outreach historian, explains the damage that’s been done to the walls in the basement of the Assay Office building, 210 W. Main St., Boise. A $1.5 million project will repair and protect the walls and remodel parts of the basement for staff use. Scott McIntosh/smcintosh@idahostatesman.com

    Once that’s done, interior walls in the basement will be constructed, asbestos flooring will be removed and new flooring installed, and a kitchenette will be built along with a new conference room and flex office space, all in the basement.

    Some work on the first and second floors will be mostly cosmetic.

    Not many changes will be noticeable on the outside of the building — except for the color of the front doors. The old U.S. Forest Service green has become faded and not original to the building. The doors will get a new coat of paint, back to the original chocolatey brown color.

    This photo of the U.S. Assay Office, 210 W. Main St., Boise, from around 1900 shows the building without bars on the first-floor windows. The Idaho State Historical Preservation Office will remove the bars as part of a renovation project. Bars on the windows were not original to the building and are believed to have been added sometime around the beginning of the 1900s. Photo courtesy of the Idaho State Historic Preservation OfficeThis photo of the U.S. Assay Office, 210 W. Main St., Boise, from around 1900 shows the building without bars on the first-floor windows. The Idaho State Historical Preservation Office will remove the bars as part of a renovation project. Bars on the windows were not original to the building and are believed to have been added sometime around the beginning of the 1900s. Photo courtesy of the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office

    What about those bars on the windows?

    Perhaps the biggest noticeable change on the outside will be the bars on the first-floor windows. They’ll be removed.

    It turns out those bars are not original. Photos from the 1890s show the windows without bars. The bars were added sometime around the turn of the 20th century, which made sense as thousands of dollars of gold and silver were being stored in the building at the time.

    In 1932, the building was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service, which removed the bars when it moved in and put in new windows.

    In 1972, the U.S. Forest Service turned over the building and land to the Idaho State Historical Society. Unfortunately, the Historical Society reinstalled the bars on the first-floor windows.

    So, as part of this latest renovation, the bars will be removed, returning the building to its original look in 1872.

    This photo of the U.S. Assay Office, 210 W. Main St., from around 1910 shows bars on the first-floor windows, not believed to be original to the building, which was built in 1871. In an upcoming renovation project, the bars will be removed. Photo courtesy of the Idaho State Historic Preservation OfficeThis photo of the U.S. Assay Office, 210 W. Main St., from around 1910 shows bars on the first-floor windows, not believed to be original to the building, which was built in 1871. In an upcoming renovation project, the bars will be removed. Photo courtesy of the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office

    This photo of the U.S. Assay Office, 210 W. Main St., from around 1910 shows bars on the first-floor windows, not believed to be original to the building, which was built in 1871. In an upcoming renovation project, the bars will be removed. Photo courtesy of the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office

    An ongoing renovation project

    Work on the building is actually part of an extended project meant to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the site in 2022.

    At the time, the State Historic Preservation Office used $350,000 in private donations and a match from the Capital City Development Corp., Boise’s urban renewal agency, on a landscaping project that included rehabilitating the irrigation system, planting 25 new trees (including three new American linden trees to match the old ones) new shrubs, an ADA-accessible track around the perimeter of the property, six new benches and more. Interpretive signs are coming soon, Everhart said.

    Everhart said the lush lawn is historically accurate, meant to symbolize the early settlers’ conquering of the harsh desert landscape. So it remains.

    The building renovation is expected to cost $1.5 million. A third of the money comes from the federal Save America’s Treasures grant program. A third comes from the Idaho State Permanent Building Fund, and a third comes from the state general fund earmarked for deferred maintenance projects across the state.

    Building’s history dates to gold rush

    The Assay Office, completed in 1871 and opened in 1872, cost $75,000 to build. It was used as an assay office from 1872 until 1932. An estimated $75 million worth of gold and silver passed through the office. An assay office melts down ore to separate gold and silver from impurities, leaving behind pure gold or silver, which was then weighed and exchanged with miners for cash or bank notes.

    It’s a relatively small building by today’s standards, just two stories, plus a basement, designed by architect Alfred B. Mullett in the Italianate style, with a rooftop cupola for ventilation.

    But it was by far the largest government building in the territory and a symbol of the federal government’s presence.

    “At the time, it was architecturally significant,” Everhart said. “It was a large, imposing structure, the likes of which no one had seen before in Idaho. There was nothing like this building. It was by far the most important in the territory, economically and architecturally.”

    It’s made of Boise sandstone, locally quarried, because without train service, it would be nearly impossible to bring in the material to build it.

    At the peak of the second story of the Assay Office building, 210 W. Main St. in Boise, is a carved logo of the U.S. Treasury Department, which built the building in 1871 to be used as an assay office, processing gold and silver from 1872-1932. Scott McIntosh/smcintosh@idahostatesman.comAt the peak of the second story of the Assay Office building, 210 W. Main St. in Boise, is a carved logo of the U.S. Treasury Department, which built the building in 1871 to be used as an assay office, processing gold and silver from 1872-1932. Scott McIntosh/smcintosh@idahostatesman.com

    At the peak of the second story of the Assay Office building, 210 W. Main St. in Boise, is a carved logo of the U.S. Treasury Department, which built the building in 1871 to be used as an assay office, processing gold and silver from 1872-1932. Scott McIntosh/smcintosh@idahostatesman.com

    It’s literally branded. If you look closely up at the top of the building facing Main Street, above the second-floor center window, you can see the U.S. Treasury logo etched in stone.

    And above the first floor is a six-petal flower, the ancient symbol for gold.

    By 1932, the need for such services was on the decline. Mining became industrial and larger in scale, and mining companies had their own assay offices and means of selling gold and silver, and it was no longer a necessary government function.

    At the same time, timber and agriculture was going strong, so in 1932, the Treasury Department turned over the building to the U.S. Forest Service, a division of the Department of Agriculture.

    The Forest Service made a number of changes, mostly to the inside of the building, including a widened central staircase, a coal-powered heating system, new windows and a new layout for offices on the first and second floors.

    It seems remarkable now, but in 1972, the federal government handed the property to the Idaho State Historical Society.

    At the time, when the society administration moved in, there was only one person in the State Historic Preservation Office. Over time, the State Historical Society staff moved into other offices, and the State Historic Preservation Office grew in size. The State Historic Preservation Office today has 12 full-time employees and occupies the Assay Office building.

    The State Historical Society has done a little work on the building since 1972, including tying into the city’s geothermal system, but other than that, not much has changed in 52 years.

    The only remaining original part of the insides of the 1872 building is a stairway leading to the basement and the basement back door. Those will remain. While the back door was original, State Historical Preservation Office staffers noticed that the door knob was not. The building’s original door knob, complete with the U.S. Treasury logo, was found after a search of the Idaho State History Museum’s collection. From the original, a new door knob will be recast as a replica.

    Dan Everhart, Idaho State Historic Preservation Office outreach historian, explains the old coal-fired boiler system installed in the basement of the Assay Office in Boise by the U.S. Forest Service when it took over the building in 1932. The building is now connected to the city’s geothermal system, but the boiler remains. Scott McIntosh/smcintosh@idahostatesman.comDan Everhart, Idaho State Historic Preservation Office outreach historian, explains the old coal-fired boiler system installed in the basement of the Assay Office in Boise by the U.S. Forest Service when it took over the building in 1932. The building is now connected to the city’s geothermal system, but the boiler remains. Scott McIntosh/smcintosh@idahostatesman.com

    The original investment? $75,000 from Congress

    The Assay Office played a significant role in the development of Idaho, particularly in the history of mining in Idaho.

    Idaho’s gold rush came a little bit after the gold rushes of California and Oregon, so when gold was discovered in them thar hills around Boise, Idaho saw a reverse migration of miners coming back east from those states to stake their claims here.

    By 1862, Idaho had been discovered, with gold in the mountains north of the Boise Valley and silver to the south in the Owyhees, particularly Silver City.

    Between 1861 and 1866, Idaho’s gold output totaled somewhere between $42 million and $52 million, or about 19% of the United States’ total during this period, putting Idaho third — after only California and Nevada — in gold production during that period.

    Once Idaho was discovered, and the gold and silver started flowing, the federal government saw the need to manage the economic wealth that was coming out of the territory.

    Seeing this increased activity, the federal government in 1863 sent troops to Boise to set up a military post to protect the gold and silver that was being discovered. President Abraham Lincoln had just established the Idaho Territory, and a military post was established where the Veterans Affairs Hospital stands today.

    In 1869, Congress appropriated $75,000 to establish an assay office in Boise, where miners could bring their gold and silver dust and nuggets and exchange them for cash or government notes.

    A gold and silver exchange in Boise

    In 1869, the closest assay office was in Denver or San Francisco, and there was no train service to Boise until 1883, which meant any gold and silver collected at the assay office had to be transported overland by stagecoach, likely down to Salt Lake City, where the transcontinental railroad had been completed, and shipped by rail to Philadelphia, where it entered the national reserve and was turned into U.S. gold and silver coins.

    Miners would travel from all over the region with their gold and silver dust and nuggets and bring them to the assay office, where the clerk would weigh and process the material. It would be melted down in smelters in the building’s basement, purified and turned into a single ingot of pure gold or silver. That would be weighed again, and the miner would be paid in cash or a government note.

    Historians are not sure how often the Boise assay office transported its gold and silver, but Everhart noted that it’s remarkable there aren’t stories of bandits absconding with a haul or two.

    The building also served an incredibly important purpose in attracting miners from all over the Boise region, even from eastern Oregon, northern Nevada and North Idaho.

    The chief assayer and his family lived in a three-bedroom apartment on the second floor, with offices on the first floor, and smelters in the basement.

    The apartment would have been an attraction at the time, as many people in and around Boise were living in tents, prove-up shacks or primitive cabins. To live in a nice, finished stone building would have been seen as a luxury.

    The assay office sits on about 0.86 acres on a block that was created when the city of Boise was replatted in 1867.

    Alexander Rossi donated the land to the federal government (very un-Idaho of him), and Everhart speculates he did so because he was angling to be named the chief assayer.

    It was not to be. Rossi held the job temporarily, until Albert Wolters, a native of Germany, got the job. Wolters, who was chief assayer from 1872 to 1883, oversaw the planting of many trees and shrubs on the site.

    The whole block became a de facto park at the time and still is today. Julia Davis Park wouldn’t come along for another 40 years.

    Boiseans treated it as their park, donating and planting trees, shrubs and flowers.

    Some of the trees on site are at least 120 years old, and you can still see the remains of the double row of American Linden trees that were planted, mimicking the Unter den Linden in Berlin, a famous boulevard that features a double row of Linden trees.

    Everhart said settlers of the time came from all over the world and other parts of the country and wanted to create some version of the places where they had lived before. The lush lawn, trees and flowers seemed to be a way of saying they had tamed the desert.

    “A federal Treasury facility was extremely important to the development of this area,” Everhart said. “This is absolutely a landmark in Boise.”

    Take the survey

    The Idaho State Historic Preservation Office is seeking public input to assist in the 2024 update of the Idaho Historic Preservation Plan, which establishes the priorities and goals for the historic preservation community throughout the State of Idaho.

    To take the survey, visit https://history.idaho.gov/shpo/

    Other Idaho landmarks

    Others Idaho sites on the National Register of Historic Landmarks are the Sacred Heart Mission in Cataldo; the Experimental Breeder Reactor (the first to convert nuclear energy into electricity); and the “Mole Hole,” a nuclear readiness facility at the Mountain Home Air Force Base, which was designated in December.

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  • The Johnson County restaurant that nearly made it, but didn’t

    The Johnson County restaurant that nearly made it, but didn’t

    Uniquely KC is a Star series exploring what makes Kansas City special. Are you feeling nostalgic for a Kansas City area restaurant that closed years ago? Share your memories, and we may write about the place in a future story.

    Tucked among leafy tree branches, caged macaws and cockatoos watched from above as children plunged their greasy hands into piles of fries.

    Janet Day, then Janet Hermes, balanced plates of ribs and pecan pie. Her chestnut hair was swept back in a ponytail, a coral shawl wrapped around her shoulders.

    Her fellow waitresses wore matching skirts and wove through tables and tree trunks, where families order sirloin steaks for $2.55.

    Then, like clockwork, the birds opened their animatronic beaks and spoke. (What did they say again? Day couldn’t remember.) Whatever it was, every child in the restaurant turned in their seats, eyes lit, to listen.

    “It was a happy atmosphere,” she said. “We had lots of high chairs — I remember that.”

    Betty Crocker Tree House and Bake Shop featured animatronic birds that would turn their heads, flap their wings and speak. General Mills
    Betty Crocker Tree House and Bake Shop featured animatronic birds that would turn their heads, flap their wings and speak. General Mills

    It’s been 50 years since Day has heard the squawking of machine fowls at the Betty Crocker Tree House Restaurant and Bake Shop in Overland Park — years before the first Rainforest Cafe put restaurant tables among the trees. Then suddenly, it was gone.

    General Mills, a century-old giant in the food industry, opened four Betty Crocker Tree House Restaurants across the country in 1971 on a trial basis. The operations in Overland Park; Dallas; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Columbus, Ohio, closed practically overnight in 1974, said Brad Moore, executive director of the Overland Park Historical Society.

    Sorely missed, fondly remembered and in many aspects, a mystery.

    While the other three Tree House restaurants have since been demolished, only the Overland Park building remains, at 10600 Metcalf Ave. It housed a revolving door of restaurants: Overland Station, W.D. Frogg’s, Michael’s Plum, Italian Gardens. None ever rose to the level of wonder and excitement of Tree House.

    Each inexplicably lasted for no more than two years. After the fifth failed restaurant, operators figured the building had bad mojo.

    “I think it was rumored to be a cursed building if you wanted to have a restaurant,” Moore said. “So it stopped being a restaurant.”

    The building became a men’s store called Kuppenheimer Clothiers for 12 years, later AAA Travel Center, and today, Midwest Tinting.

    But to many longtime Johnson County residents, it’s still known as the old Tree House.

    The woodsy atmosphere of the restaurant made guests feel as though they were up in the trees. Overland Park Historical SocietyThe woodsy atmosphere of the restaurant made guests feel as though they were up in the trees. Overland Park Historical Society

    The woodsy atmosphere of the restaurant made guests feel as though they were up in the trees. Overland Park Historical Society

    In addition to his duties with the historical society, Moore runs a Facebook page with tens of thousands of other nostalgic Overland Park natives called, “We grew up in The OP!”

    There, they reminisce about their high school days, long-gone shopping malls and businesses that didn’t make their way into the 21st century. One restaurant comes up in conversation more than most: The group has no shortage of memories about the restaurant with talking birds.

    It certainly didn’t close for lack of interest, Moore said.

    “The kids loved it,” he said. “It would not be uncommon to have it be a packed house and have it be a wait.”

    Moore went to the Tree House himself as a kindergartner, marveling at the robotic birds (“I wish I could remember what they said. Nobody else seems to recall”), the pyramid skylights and buttresses that made the building look like it was standing on stilts. Trees shot up around the dining area, branches reaching up to the vaulted ceiling.

    The triangular “stilts” are still standing today, though the building’s distinct wood-paneling has been replaced with gray paint and yellowy vinyl.

    Instead of its tall signs shaped like triplet leaves, a navy sign for Midwest Tinting sits out front. A garage bay door opens in the back.

    Tree House could seat 266, according to General Mills, and contained a gift shop and bakery.

    Tree House’s offerings included hamburgers ($1.35), seafood platters ($2.75) and gelatin salad molded in the shape of animals, but its cakes were some of its most popular items. Moore showed a photo of him and his sister posing with her Betty Crocker birthday cake. A doll stands on a platter, the skirt of her cake-and-candle dress ballooning out.

    Created by AccuSoft Corp. Brad Moore (left), executive direct of the Overland Park Historical Society, remembers being envious of his sister's birthday cake from Betty Crocker Tree House./Brad MooreCreated by AccuSoft Corp. Brad Moore (left), executive direct of the Overland Park Historical Society, remembers being envious of his sister's birthday cake from Betty Crocker Tree House./Brad Moore

    Created by AccuSoft Corp. Brad Moore (left), executive direct of the Overland Park Historical Society, remembers being envious of his sister’s birthday cake from Betty Crocker Tree House./Brad Moore

    Moore stands off to the side, unsmiling.

    “I actually remember being a little jealous of that cake,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘Do they make one with a GI Joe?’”

    Eighty-three-year-old Peggy Lee remembers taking her daughters, Christy and Jill, to the restaurant in their Sunday best after church services, chatting while they ate.

    Her special needs daughter, Jill, was especially captivated by the talking birds. (Though Lee can’t remember what they said, either.)

    “It was kind of a novel idea,” Lee said. “We were all very disappointed when it closed.”

    At the time, there were fewer restaurants on the Kansas side of the metro, thanks to strict alcohol laws that lingered post-Prohibition.

    “If you wanted to have a nice night out with a drink, you had to go to Missouri,” Lee said.

    That made Tree House even more of an anomaly.

    Ahead of Tree House’s opening in 1970, The Star teased the restaurant’s wholesome, family atmosphere, reporting that Overland Park was chosen as one of the four cities to test the concept because of its “Kansas City-can-do attitude.”

    “The project was created on the premise that there is a real need for family oriented restaurants,” The Star said. “The growing trees, natural sun light, high raftered ceiling and color scheme are combined to create an inviting mellowness.”

    Surely, if it were up to customers, the family-friendly restaurant would have stayed. But the decision was General Mills’, which ultimately wanted to invest resources in Red Lobster instead, according to a company statement.

    (General Mills’ restaurant division, Darden Restaurants, sold Red Lobster to Golden Gate Capital in 2014 for $2.1 billion.)

    Even with all the bells and whistles modern technology has made widely available, there’s nothing quite like Tree House in the Kansas City area today.

    Rainforest Cafe opened its first restaurant in Minnesota in 1994 and brought the concept to Overland Park’s Oak Park Mall in 1999, but it closed a decade later.

    T-Rex Cafe — Rainforest Cafe’s Prehistoric spinoff — was open in The Legends Kansas City from 2006 to 2017.

    And while nobody in Overland Park can, for the life of them, remember what the birds said, perhaps it’s not a memory lost in time after all.

    In a response to The Star, General Mills sent over fact sheets about the restaurant. According to their archivist, the birds turned their heads and flapped their wings as they chirped phrases like, “Rah, rah Audubon” (after wildlife artist John James Audubon, famous for his work “The Birds of America”). They sang a couple lines of “Let Me Call You Tweetheart.”

    Learning this, Moore let out a long laugh.

    “Well, that’s pretty amazing.”

    (Editor’s note: After The Star interviewed former waitress Janet Day, she died at the age of 65.)

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