Historic home gets open house

SANDPOINT - The historic Nesbitt House is ready for its close-up.

An open house is being held this week at the stately yet modest home at 602 N. Fourth Ave. so people can see the result of nearly three years of restoration work.

People are free to visit between noon and 4 p.m. through the end of the week.

The owner, James Harvey, said he was obliged to let people come look as a show of gratitude for the encouragement and thanks he received from residents for giving the place a new lease on life.

"I just kind of feel like I owe it to them for all the people being so nice and supportive," Harvey said.

Harvey acquired the dwelling several years ago, after it moldered on its corner lot for years. Harvey wondered if its neglect was linked to some notorious crime but the home's disrepair nagged on his conscience.

The home had various owners since it was built in 1905 for John and Amanda Nesbitt by Dan Tanner. As the decades went on, different owners came and went.

By the time Harvey obtained it, every fixture had been stripped out of the place by previous owners. The floor plan was also reconfigured during the years.

But Harvey thinks Dortmund Builders, the restoration contractor, got 99.9 percent of the original floor plan back in place.

"We looked at the footprints - marks and indentations on the walls, ceilings and floors to find out where the original walls were," Harvey said.

The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places after it was nominated in 1982, according to Idaho State Historical Society records. It was nominated because of its architectural significance.

It was one of only a handful of houses built in the Queen Anne style, a style that had dwindled in popularity by the time most of Sandpoint was platted in 1898.

"It's almost like they went down the list of what makes a Queen Anne and then they added all of those things to the house," Harvey said.

The nods to Queen Anne style include a tower on the southwest side of the building, liberal use of porches, narrow shiplap siding to provide texture and swooping roof eaves.

But Harvey notes that the home is a humble homage to Queen Anne style. It is by no means a mansion and didn't have any original stained glass, oak or mahogany.

"It was fir and pine - really quite austere," he said.

The home is being converted to professional office space capable of housing as many as five different tenants.

Harvey attributes the home's endurance to the care and skill with which it was built.

"The house is still here and that's because Mr. Tanner did one hell of a good job. It's his work that let the place last as long as it has," Harvey said.