Historic home set to float

COEUR d’ALENE — A 115-year-old home will set sail across Lake Coeur d’Alene early Wednesday morning.

The “White House” at the Village at Orchard Ridge will move to its new location at John Swallow’s Casco Bay property, where he and partner Rob Johnson will restore it to its original condition, said Orchard Ridge spokesman Amy Boni.

“We are thrilled to have collaborated with the Museum of North Idaho and John Swallow to give this home a well-deserved new location and family,” said Ann Johnson, executive director at Orchard Ridge. “With the help of the Museum, John contacted me and we have been in dialogue for over a year. I am extremely happy that the White House can be preserved and restored by a family who is passionate about preserving history.”

The moving process will begin at 5 a.m. Wednesday when the 1903 home gets lifted off its foundation and placed onto a flatbed truck. The house will proceed down Northwest Boulevard to U.S. 95 south, cross the bridge and transition onto a barge at Murphy’s Landing. Boni said the house should be on the road for an hour, and moved onto the barge after another hour or so before shoving off to its new destination.

The Board of Directors of Orchard Ridge was pleased to donate the home to Swallow and his family rather than demolish the building, Boni said.

The “White House” began as the home of the president of CDA College, colloquially referred to as the Swedish College.

After the college shut down in 1917, the home served as the residence of the superintendent of Coeur d’Alene Homes, which area Lutherans opened for older adults and orphans in 1921.

Since then, Orchard Ridge has served North Idaho by providing a faith-based loving home for older adults, said Boni. During the last decade, the “White House” served various administrative functions for the housing development. Orchard Ridge is governed by 20 local sponsoring churches, which Boni noted is “the only nonprofit facility of its kind in the Inland Northwest.”