Fort Sherman Revisited Renovation Of Officers’ Quarters Will Include Some Modern Touches

The black and white magic of an old photograph captures women wearing long skirts, and men wearing stiff expressions, as they pose on a wrap-around porch.

Vines climb from the railing to the overhanging roof of the Fort Sherman officers’ quarters.

The porch disappeared after the fort was abandoned in 1905. Two nearby buildings that housed officers’ families disappeared completely, making way for parking lots at North Idaho College.

Other Fort Sherman buildings simply caved in to the burdens that time places on wood and plaster.

But the college is preserving Coeur d’Alene’s oldest building, the one in the picture. It was built in 1878.

This is not a museum-type restoration. It will capture the flavor of the turn-of-the-century military installation while providing modern office space and an elegant conference room.

“Our intent was to restore the exterior to what it looked like when the fort was active, and to have one ‘period style’ room inside,” said Rolly Jergens, dean of administration.

Only two other Fort Sherman buildings remain. One is a chapel. The other is a powder magazine, where ammunition was stored. It now serves as an on-campus museum.

Exterior work on the officers’ quarters began last spring. It included replacing the porch, with the discreet addition of a handicapped ramp at the side of the building.

Before that could be done, the whole structure needed to be jacked up and cement poured underneath.

“There was essentially no foundation,” said Jergens. “The walls sat on the ground, or on loosely stacked bricks.”

The exterior work is being paid for with $219,000 from the Idaho Department of Public Works. Contracting delays kept it from being done before winter.

Now, painters are waiting for warm weather and the completion of the interior work.

Interior work began in December. Budgeted at $260,000, it will end up costing $350,000. The college had to make up the difference with $90,000 it had intended to use to renovate an old armory into a marine technology shop.

Gordon Longwell, the supervising architect, praised NIC for tackling the preservation project. He said the higher costs arose from unpleasant surprises that are hidden behind many old remodeling jobs, and the original plaster.

“Until the plaster was removed, no one knew what was behind those walls.” said Longwell.

“Doors were moved, windows were relocated and proper framing was just not done. What was done 119 years ago doesn’t meet today’s standards.”

The building is being reframed, with wider studs put next to the original ones so the walls can be properly insulated.

The inside of the building is a maze of framing and carpentry tools. Its exposed innards offer clues to the past: floor supports that were singed by fire, slices of logs that serve as sheathing under the roof.

The crumbling rocks under the original building, and the removal of some supporting beams during remodeling, caused the building to sag in places.

This week, Longwell walked into the second-floor cupola that extends over the porch. Before remodeling, he said, it had sloped forward 2-1/2 inches.

The front stairway, one of the few features of architectural significance, will remain. Like many other parts of the building, however, it must be modified to meet current building codes. New, longer spindles will raise the railing from 30 inches to 42 inches.

Longwell hopes the completed building will house a display case for artifacts, including a chisel that some original workman left behind in the plaster.

The officers’ quarters has served as apartments, offices, even a small theater. In recent years, the upstairs was walled off.

Two-thirds of the building was unused when NIC president Bob Bennett started lobbying the state for money to preserve the building.

Bennett has taken a personal interest in the downstairs conference room, the building’s centerpiece. He has $17,000 in proceeds from an NIC Foundation concert, earmarked for special decorating touches that couldn’t be purchased with tax money.

French doors will lead from the front hall to the conference room, which has the only fireplace left in the building. The room will have wainscoting on the walls, and a period-style coffered ceiling with in-set sections between exposed wooden beams.

“I negotiated with a local antique dealer for a very large and very beautiful old table. I’m hoping we can get a big, massive old hutch to put off to the side,” said Bennett.

The renovation should be completed by mid-June. Bennett said the college will hold an open house to show it off.

“It’s going to look so nice.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Photos (2 Color)