Keeping history alive
From left: Joe Butler, president of the Post Falls Historical Society and board members Cindy Mead and Ted Fredekind stand in the fifties room at the Post Falls Museum.
ELLI GOLDMAN HILBERT/Press
POST FALLS – The Post Falls Historical Society and Museum is hosting a spaghetti dinner fundraiser from 3-6 p.m. Sept. 18 to support the continued work of preserving the city’s past.
The event will be at Tilly’s Restaurant, 212 E. 7th Ave. in Post Falls. Entry is $10 for adults and $5 for children, but if guests register for a new membership to the museum and historical society, their meal is free.
Ted Fredekind, a member of the society, said it's important to keep history alive.
“It’s hard to know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been,” he said. “That’s how you develop community pride, if you understand the history.”
Fredekind has lived in Post Falls since 1939 and has seen a lot of changes over the years.
The building the museum occupies has a lengthy history of its own. Built in 1923, it was originally Chapin’s Pharmacy. Mr. Chapin came to the area in 1914.
“This was back when Fourth Avenue was the main east-west thoroughfare,” Fredekind said. “He wanted to be where the traffic was.”
During the 1900s, a commuter train ran between Post Falls and Spokane and, being on Fourth Avenue, Chapin was right in the middle of the activity.
Over the years the building has been used as a police station and laundromat. It was used by the public school system for a time and was called “the hut” by students.
“It was once Bernard’s Garden Spot Grocery,” Fredekind said.
Post Falls Parks and Recreation had its office there for a spell, and the historical society moved there in 2009.
During the early 1900s, Post Falls had a racetrack that sat where the Walmart is located on Mullan Avenue. Though the city’s population was about 800 at that time, the track had seating for 5,000 people and usually packed the grandstand, Fredekind said.
The museum has historical artifacts dating all the way back to Frederick Post’s arrival to the area in 1871. Post established a sawmill in Post Falls and one in Spokane. Later he purchased 298 acres of land from the Schitsu’umsh Indian Tribe and founded what we now know as Post Falls.
The 1950s room is one of Fredekind’s favorites.
“I love this room,” he said. “I was a teen in the '50s and everything looks familiar.”
With artifacts ranging from John Kildow’s hand-carved canoe, circa 1938, to relics from schools, the museum is the place to go for a great historical understanding of the city.
The historical society runs the Post Falls Museum at 101 E. Fourth Ave., which is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday until Oct. 31.
Memberships are $20 for a single person or $30 for a family. The museum welcomes volunteers to help operate the museum, and tours of the museum are offered at no cost. Donations are appreciated.