Rathdrum Chamber hosts downtown event

RATHDRUM – The Rathdrum Area Chamber of Commerce will host a welcome “Back to Downtown Rathdrum” event tonight as a way to highlight new Main Street businesses and the recent remodeling work on the chamber’s historic building that includes a new mural welcoming visitors to the west end of town.

“We are encouraging residents to come downtown and check everything out,” said chamber board member Rondi Renaldo, general manager of Panhandle State Bank. “The chamber building now has a warm, welcoming look, both inside and out.”

Chamber members are eager to show off their new sign, their completely remodeled interior, and the mural, painted by well-known local artist John Brown.

Built by the Interstate Utilities Company following the August 1924 fire, the chamber building was first used as a telephone building. Later purchased by the city of Rathdrum, the building served as the city’s fire station for many years, then was leased to the Rathdrum Area Chamber of Commerce after a new fire station was built.

Asked to design a scene “that represented the area,” Brown came up with a design he called “The Home of the Lakeland Hawks,” which he airbrushed onto the wall. The mountain scene includes a lake, Rathdrum Mountain, lots of pine and evergreen trees, a white-tailed deer and a soaring hawk.

The mural is Brown’s second large mural in Rathdrum. The other, a turn-of-the-century design, can be seen on the side of The Salsa Factory at the corner of Main and McCartney.

The chamber urges residents to stop by their building between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. tonight, where they can pick up a map of participating businesses.

“There will be coffee, hot chocolate and a present for those stopping by,” Renaldo said.

She expects most of the Main Street business to participate and a few others, like F-1 for Help and J & R Electronics, on Highway 53, are also joining in the event.

The chamber will be holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Paul Matthews’ new building earlier in the day, welcoming to the city his business, Pasold Matthews Architects, and Pleasant Land Books and Espresso, his first tenant. Matthews will hold an open house during the chamber evening event, to give area residents a peek at the first new building on Main Street in many years.

For more information, call the chamber at 687-2866.