Jewett House has long history in lumbering

Much has changed in the world and along the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene since the mansion at the east end of Lakeshore Drive was completed in 1917. That was the same year John F. Kennedy was born, Einstein was unsettling scientific thought with his theory of relativity and World War I raged in Europe.

Construction of the home for Huntington Taylor and his family had begun in 1915. Taylor was the general manager of the Edward Rutledge Timber Co., the sawmill that once spread over the acres of the present-day Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course with its floating green.

Research reveals that a great deal of the lumbering history of the immediate region is associated with the family whose members were the home’s second occupants. A constant in this history is the name of George Frederick Jewett Sr.

According to his biography in papers donated to the University of Idaho in 1983, George “Fritz” Jewett was born in St. Paul, Minn., in 1896 to James Richard and Margaret Weyerhaeuser Jewett. He was educated at the best schools, including Andover Academy in Massachusetts, and received a B.A. in 1919 and an M.B.A. in 1922 – both from Harvard. He also did post-graduate work in forestry in Germany.

“He was well-known in the timber industry for his progressive ideas in forest conservation,” the university’s papers also state. Jewett became a noted philanthropist.

He entered the timber industry in 1922 and became office manager of the Clearwater Timber Co. in Lewiston in 1925. In 1928 he joined the Rutledge Timber Co. in Coeur d’Alene, where he served as general manager.

It was at this point that the home became associated with the Jewett name. In the early 1930s, the house was the private residence of the Jewett family and they lived there until they moved to Spokane in 1937.

In 1941, Jewett was elected president of Potlatch Forests Inc,. the result of a merger of the Rutledge, Potlatch and Clearwater Timber concerns. From 1949 until his death in 1956 he was board chairman of Potlatch Forests.

No longer a private residence, the mansion became a staff house in 1940 and was used to entertain company officials and international guests until 1972.

In 1978, Potlatch Forests granted the mansion to the city of Coeur d’Alene with a deed in trust that provided the house would be used as a senior center.

The changes in the home’s surroundings have been extensive. In 1917 mills crowded the lake’s north shores, steamers still carried passengers and cargo on the lake, and tugboats towed “roundups” of logs corralled by log booms to the hungry sawmills.

Today little remains. Marketable timber is harder to come by. One by one the mills have disappeared and yielded their land to golf courses, resorts and other urban development, and the steamers lie at the bottom of the lake. Yet the house that connects to this past remains as a reminder.

So far, all of the properties featured in this column are listed on the National Register of Historic Places but, despite the history connected with the house and the significance of its ownership and location, Jewett House, because of extensive exterior alterations is not eligible.

According to architectural historians, the design of the house is American Foursquare, a house of simple house form, square in shape with a hipped roof and dormer windows. Jewett House also has abundant features of the Craftsman movement.

The original front porch was built of wood with a gabled roof above the entry. At the east end of the porch was an attached porte-cochere – a covered drive-through that provided guests with convenient access to the house, while protected from rain or snow.

The wooden porch floor was replaced with a concrete slab, decorative iron supports were added to the roof, and the roof gable removed along with the porte-cochere. The circular drive has disappeared beneath grass and landscaping.

Inside, the house holds to the Craftsman tradition with beamed ceilings and window treatments, although much of the woodwork has been painted. Originally, in keeping with the period in which it was built, the interior trim and woodwork were probably stained and varnished. The first floor consists of an entry hall and central stairway and on the right, a dining room and behind that a butler’s pantry and kitchen.

On the left of the entry is the living room and behind that a cozy den furnished with Adirondack or “camp” furniture, that the house manager, Marla Lake, agrees could be original furnishings. Both living room and den have back-to-back fireplaces. On the west side of the house is an enclosed sun porch that balanced the porte-cochere on the east.

The original garage still stands behind the house and farther back on the lot is a building that once was a chicken house. Lake says that building has been used as a greenhouse and for storage.

Upstairs are six bedrooms and three baths; the third floor was servant’s quarters. There also is a basement.

The alterations do not detract from the home’s roomy, yet cozy atmosphere. One can easily imagine what it was like to live there surrounded by tall pines with a view stretching across the lake to Arrow Point and The Narrows farther south. Now, seniors from the community and others meet and enjoy the ongoing hospitality of Jewett House and, with a little imagination, connect with its past.

The house is available, on a fee basis, for weddings or other gatherings. Lake says that no alcohol or smoking is allowed. For more information, call 667-5194.