Neighborhood hopes to save local home

On a breezy summer Friday on Spokane Street, Zoe Ann Thruman stood on her front steps between knick-knacks and a green John Deere snowblower and insisted this story isn’t about her.

“It can’t be about me,” she said as passers-by wandered through her front lawn, window-shopping through her fundraiser garage sale intended to benefit a local theater company. “If people think it’s about me, they’ll just dismiss me. This has to be about the voice of the people.”

It’s hard not to make this story at least a little about Thruman. After all, the Coeur d’Alene resident is behind a push to save a beloved house on Government Way, a house caught between an unclear history and county bulldozers.

“I’m just one person in this,” she said. “I’m just one citizen, but I don’t think any citizen should feel helpless. I think it’s our responsibility to stand up.”

The house she and others hope to protect — 627 Government Way — faces a grim fate. Kootenai County, which bought the property in 2017, aims to raze the home and remove the trees so it can expand the adjacent courthouse. Current plans, which have not yet reached the design phase, let alone been voted on by county commissioners, include the notion of using the property for public defenders and their staff to continue their work.

“[This property] is going to help the county in a couple different ways,” Commissioner Chris Fillios said. “For our public defender, right now, we’re renting space for them. That’s for 40 people at about $10,000 a month. And that’s just one organization within the government.”

When asked if saving the building was an option in the forseeable future, Fillios was direct.

“From a county perspective, no,” he said. “It’s not a historical monument … It’s not on the state historical registry. I brought it to their attention, but as far as I know, it’s not on their list.”

In fact, the house at 627 Government Way is not on either the National Register of Historic Places in Idaho or the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office’s radar. Built in 1910, the structure has endured over the years, most recently occupied by a private law firm. From a paperwork standpoint, it’s essentially just an old house.

Thruman, however, disagrees.

“I saw the [article] in the paper, and I was just sick about it,” she said. “That house is part of the character of this neighborhood. Those trees act as a beautiful buffer between us and the courthouse … I don’t mean to sound like a hippie, but trees and homes are as much a part of the character of a city as its people. But trees and homes can’t speak up for themselves. It’s up to us to speak for them. We need to be a voice.”

Thruman isn’t alone. While selling donated items to help the theater company that day, the table she used as a cash register boasted a petition featuring 75 signatures, all gathered in the space of a few hours, she said.

“I’m not alone in this,” she said. “We definitely respect the pressure [the county commissioners] are under, but they need to respect our neighborhood, as well; not just for that house, but also for our neighbors.”

Thruman said her concerns stem from the intrusion a government building might cause to the area, citing what she speculates the building might do to her area’s property values.

“I could paint swastikas all over my front lawn,” she said. “That’s my property. That’s my right. But what would that do to the property values of all my neighbors’ homes? That’s not what being a good neighbor means.”

Fillios, who pointed out the property is zoned commercial, said a government building is the least intrusive option, compared to what the land could become.

“If we were to build there, we’d be looking at three or four stories,” he said. “It’s currently zoned C-17. Someone could put in a high rise there. What would that do to their property values?”

Fillios added that traffic from a government building, which would likely be open only during daylight hours, would offer very little disruption, compared to apartments or condominium complexes.

“Frankly, I think I’d rather have a government building there,” he said.

Fillios added that even if the building were listed on a historical registry, such a proclamation wouldn’t necessarily preclude moving forward with construction.

Robert Singletary agreed.

“This [would be] an honorary nomination,” the chairman of the Kootenai County Preservation Commission said. “It’s an honor to be put on it, because it’s quite a process to be placed on that list.”

Still, Singletary, who also serves the North Idaho Museum, is digging into the home’s history, exploring its architectural origins and local significance. He hopes to uncover enough of the home’s past to sway the commissioners to halt demolition. So far, he hasn’t discovered the history that might save the home, but he remained hopeful.

“We need to do our due diligence,” Singletary said. “If you can get the cities or counties involved, especially early on, you’ll learn that preservation isn’t about ‘us versus them.’ We need to understand there are a lot of different perspectives, including the county’s. And we need to understand what many people, including government officials, don’t understand about preservation. We need to understand where everybody is coming from, and that means from the neighbors, from the county and from [those of us interested in] preserving history.”

One Idaho man who understands its history is former Commerce director for the state of Idaho Jim Hawkins. Hawkins called the house a home for 18 years, from the age of 5 in 1941 up to his wedding in 1959. If organizers ever managed to successfully save the house by moving the structure, Hawkins said it likely wouldn’t be the first time.

“We learned the hard way once,” he said. “We were told the house was moved. The front door used to face the courthouse. But then, before we moved in, it was moved to face Government Way … There’s a full basement in there, so I don’t know how they were able to move it.”

He also recalled a time when fate almost moved the house again, in a less careful manner.

“Originally in the back of the home was a little barn,” Hawkins remembered. “It’s not there anymore. My dad found a guy to tear down the barn, and the guy my dad hired found oozing sticks of dynamite in the attic. Oozing. You light a match, and the whole neighborhood goes up.”

Hawkins said he was sad to see the house razed but understood the county’s position.

“It’s disheartening, but I understand … It’s not the house it used to be. To me, it has a wonderful history in Coeur d’Alene, sitting in the right place at the right time, and my family loved every moment we spent there.”

County commissioners said they remain open to ideas saving the house but recognize their growing needs must be addressed.

“There is a line out the door for the drivers licensing most days,” Commissioner Leslie Duncan said in a statement, “and when the state assigns more judges to our court system, we have nowhere for the judges or their staff to sit, let alone another courtroom to hear cases. There are several other mandated departments that are also out of room. I have a duty to the citizens of Kootenai County to use tax dollars wisely. That is my focus.”

Duncan reiterated that the house has not been scheduled for demolition, and that the county made every accommodation for the community to remove and preserve the home. However, the few interested parties determined that relocating the structure wasn’t economically feasible.

Thruman, meanwhile, remains optimistic. Her grassroots campaign includes collecting enough signatures to convince the county to seek out new alternatives. In a letter to the editor that ran in Friday’s Coeur d’Alene Press, she pleaded to the county, Coeur d’Alene City Council and Mayor Steve Widmyer to find a new location to facilitate growth.

“I hope the voice of the people will urge everyone involved to find another solution,” Thruman said. “You could sell the [property]. You could re-zone it. I think that it’s possible to find a solution. I think you just have to hear what the people really want.”

Fillios agreed.

“If people have concerns, bring them to us,” he urged. “We’ll listen. But try to understand: We have needs, too. The county didn’t buy the property with the intent of selling it off; we bought it so we could grow.

“I understand where [Thruman] is coming from,” Fillios added, “but sometimes people need to realize the county has land rights, too.”