HUCKLEBERRIES: Penney's earned its place in Cd'A history

When J.C. Penney manager Ernie G. Meyer handed Mayor Marc Souther a symbolic key to his new store 60 years ago, it was a big deal.

For the first time, downtown Coeur d’Alene had an anchor store that would attract residents year-round.

“We thought the downtown was the center of the world,” said Sandy Emerson, a Coeur d’Alene native and former chamber of commerce manager. “And Penney’s cemented that idea. It was the department store that we needed downtown. People were excited to see it open.”

Before J.C. Penney opened in the 200 block of Sherman Avenue, Sandy said, small businesses and shops downtown struggled. Some didn’t last a year. Nightspots and restaurants also lined the main street. But some closed in the offseason, from November through May.

The new Penney’s brought stability to the west end of Sherman Avenue.

On Feb. 6, 1964, local dignitaries, store officials, and a large crowd gathered for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

In his short speech, Mayor Souther described the new store as a “great asset to the community.”

Oakly Evans, a Penney's official from New York City, touted the store’s décor and fixtures: “This store is as up to date as any in the country. There is nothing newer or finer.” The next step, Evans said, was to build an auto center adjacent to the new store as part of a “one-stop service and full selection of merchandise for Coeur d’Alene customers.”

Then, Miss Coeur d’Alene Alice Compton cut the ribbon for the two-day grand opening.

And two young brothers — Ricky, 3, and Randy, 2, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Martin of 1807 Sixth St. — led the crowd into the three-level store, including a basement level, and rode the Penney's elevator, which some say was the first one in town.

Also attending the opening were Lars O. Tendall and J.H. Bell.

Tendall opened the first Penney’s here in 1916, after working for the growing chain of stores in Kellogg and Wallace. He managed Coeur d’Alene Penney’s until 1935, when Bell took over. James Cash Penney originally hired Tendall to work at his first store, built in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyo., and called it the “Golden Rule."

After viewing the new 70,000-square-foot Penney’s, according to The Press, Tindell shook his head in wonder: “So many new lines we never even touched in the old days. It’s quite a store — quite a store.”

Property owner Harley Hudson, the key player in the overhaul of what became “the Penney’s block,” didn’t live to see the new store open. In April of the previous spring, he died unexpectedly at age 82 after razing his holdings on the south side of Sherman to pave the way for the $289,000 Penney’s store.

As part of the demolition, Hudson relocated his popular Missouri Kitchen hamburger place across the street from 210 Sherman Avenue, where it had been since 1927. Now, of course, the venerable family business is known as Hudson’s Hamburgers.

Penney’s was a downtown institution for 25 years before moving to the Silver Lake Mall. In 2021, after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Penney’s officials shut hundreds of stores including the local one. Meanwhile, the old Penney's block is now the site of the Coeur d'Alene Resort Plaza Shops.

Remembering Bud

Many of you remember Richard “Bud” Budvarson, the former Coeur d’Alene Press advertising manager who died seven years ago this month at age 90.

Close friends will also recall that the Army veteran was a whiz with a camera.

But few know that Bud once helped save an avalanche victim at Silverhorn Ski Resort (Silver Mountain).

The Feb. 12, 1979, edition of The Press reported the harrowing event.

Bud was on a ski lift approaching a ramp when a frantic operator told him of the nearby avalanche and a missing skier. Bud sprang into action, grabbing avalanche probes and directing other skiers to the site. Rescuers found the victim quickly after spotting his boot just under the snow.

The skier, Peter Bock, then 20 of Spokane, was buried 3 feet under the wet snow and wasn’t breathing when rescuers uncovered his face. So they dug furiously and freed Bock in five minutes. The skier was unconscious but breathing on his own when he was pulled from the snow. He recovered quickly, suffering only a wrenched shoulder.

Bud joined The Press in 1965 and was named publisher of the Shoshone News-Press 20 years later. He died Feb. 6, 2017.

A tough sell

Selling real estate isn’t easy — even for those who make the business look like it is.

On Feb. 5, 1989, The Press asked the three top-selling agents from the previous year — John Beutler, Bill Robinette and Bob Liesche — how they did it.

“To be successful,” Beutler responded, “you have to be on call 24 hours a day. If someone calls, you better show it now, or you may not get the chance again.”

In 1988, Beutler was the top seller of 289 Kootenai County Realtors with $7.1 million in property sold. He was followed by Robinette with $6.1 million and Liesche with $4.2 million. At that time, homes in good neighborhoods, like Fernan Village and Fairway Hills, were selling for $60,000 to $80,000.

All three said it wasn’t easy to break into the business. Robinette said he earned only about $5,000 in 1975, his first year of selling real estate. Liesche made only $565 in his first year: 1979. The three Realtors touted the importance of specializing in one or two areas of real estate.

Said Robinette: “I had no direction; I was like a sailboat on a lake — drifting. Then I started selling lakefront property.”

The trio’s pearls of wisdom remain relevant today.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: A schooner of Pabst,/a tumbler of wine,/a Slim Jim to share —/please say you’ll be mine — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“North Idaho Valentine”).

• Final Deadline: On Feb. 10, 1949, death claimed Horatio Stanley Wetherell, the retired publisher of the Post Falls Advance. His newspaper career lasted 48 years, from 1887 to 1935. After he retired, he served as the Post Falls correspondent for the Coeur d’Alene Press. Of note, he submitted his final articles to The Press when he was 92, only two weeks before his death.

• Lakeside Legacy: Antonio “Tony” Carneiro, then 43, died too young Feb. 8, 1964, but he left behind a legacy of fine dining — and his name. In 1947, he moved his family to Coeur d’Alene from New Bedford, Mass., and, five years later, opened Tony’s Café and Bar in a former bordello, east of Coeur d’Alene. Tony and wife, Della, raised their four boys — David, Kenneth, James and Joseph — at their restaurant. Tony’s on the Lake remains popular today under different ownership.

• There Goes Hilde: On Feb. 12, 2004, Hilde Kellogg, of Post Falls, the grand dame of the Idaho Legislature, announced she wouldn’t seek re-election. At 85, she’d been a successful legislator for 10 terms and wanted to stay closer to home. Among her many accomplishments, she was a key cog in establishing Greyhound Park. In return, the track named its mechanical rabbit after her.

• Do You Know … that Coeur d’Alene once pumped drinking water from the lake? And that, in winter 1948-49, a seaplane dropped anchor amid the intake pipelines? And that the anchor ruptured the lines as the plane took off? Sandy Emerson was a boy at the time. But he recalls that the town’s water tasted "muddy and fishy" until Washington Water Power Co. (Avista) fixed the problem.

Parting shot

On Valentine’s Day 1994, Kootenai Chronicles, by local historian Robert Singletary, debuted in the Coeur d’Alene Press, a full page of historical text and photos about our slice of paradise. Each Monday, Bob focused on an aspect of our shared history, beginning that first week with the evolution of the government entity we know as Kootenai County. (Hint: the original Kootenai County was much different than it is today.) His subjects ranged from Fort Sherman to the steamboat era, from local town beginnings to schoolhouses, churches, and parks. A compiled copy of Bob’s columns is available at the Coeur d’Alene Library. The Press published the columns in cooperation with the Museum of North Idaho. Perhaps it’s time to resurrect Bob’s old columns and publish them again — for the old-timers as much as for the huddled masses of newcomers yearning to share our town.

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D.F. “Dave” Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.

    The new Penney’s store in February 1964.
  

    Avalanche rescuer Bud Budvarson with a favorite camera.
  

    Top Realtors, from left, Bob Liesche, Bill Robinette and John Beutler.
  

    Publisher H.S. Wetherell
  

    In November 2009, former legislator Hilde Kellogg, seated, receives congratulations at the dedication of a Post Falls park named in her honor.
  

    Diver Colin O’Donnell of Spokane, left, found a seaplane anchor in 112 feet of water that tore intake lines. He is shown with water superintendent Oscar Hill of Washington Water Power, center, and diver tender David Dilworth of Spokane.
  

    The first Kootenai Chronicles was published in The Press on Valentine’s Day 1994.