Gonzaga hopes to move historic Huetter House

Gonzaga University has come up with a plan to save the threatened Huetter House, a prominent historic portion of the Bishop White Seminary adjacent to the GU campus.

The Catholic Diocese of Spokane wants to replace the seminary with a larger, more cohesive facility in a project slated for work this year.

The existing seminary includes the circa 1900 home at 429 E. Sharp Ave. on the east side of the seminary complex, which could have faced demolition without a plan to move it, officials said.

In a letter earlier this month to neighboring residents, GU officials said they are proposing to move the Huetter House from the corner of Sharp Avenue and Addison Street to a lot across Addison at 503 E. Sharp Ave. that currently holds an older structure.

The converted house at 503 E. Sharp would be moved to 511 E. Sharp. That house has been used as offices by the university for three decades, the letter said.

The double move may require the demolition of a structure at 511 E. Sharp, according to the letter by Kenneth Sammons, director of plant services for the university.

“While this will be a difficult and expensive move, the university believes the mansion has sufficient historical and practical value to warrant the attempt to move the building,” Sammons wrote in the letter.

Joanne Moyer, of the Spokane Preservation Advocates organization, said she is pleased that the university is willing to attempt the move to preserve what has been an important historic landmark.

Dale Goodwin, university spokesman, said the moves hinge in part on both houses having sufficient structural integrity.

The moves would require a conditional use permit from the city so that the university could operate offices in what is currently a residential zone.

Huetter House would give GU additional offices on its two upper floors, while the main floor would be used for receptions, meetings and special events.

The Huetter House is named for pioneering contractor John T. Huetter, who built the Gonzaga Administration Building, Heath Library, DeSmet Hall, the former St. Joseph’s Orphanage and other large brick and stone buildings in the Spokane region, many of which have been demolished, including the orphanage.

Huetter, Idaho, between Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene, takes its name from Huetter’s quarry, brickyard and lumber mill that he established there in the 1890s to take advantage of a clay deposit and rail service.

Huetter was born in Germany in 1866 and came to Spokane in 1892. He was a skilled stonemason. In addition to enterprises at Huetter, he owned and operated the East End Granite Co. in Spokane and Blue Rock Quarries at Garden Springs, according to historian Nancy Compau in the September 2002 edition of Nostalgia Magazine.