Roosevelt preserved while living new life as B&B
Teddy Roosevelt never slept in the red, brick building that bears his name, but according to owner and innkeeper John Hough, tradition has it that the president visited the site when the school was being built. The Roosevelt, now a bed and breakfast on the corner of Wallace and First, replaced an earlier wood-frame school.
“We know the president was in town in 1903 and it would not be unusual for him to visit the construction site because the land had been part of Fort Sherman,” says Hough.
Hough’s own experience confirms that the fort’s grounds extended to that area and well beyond. He tells of helping his dad dig up cherry trees in the back yard of the family home, in the 700 block of North Fourth Street, well north and east of the school. The backyard project became an accidental archeological dig of sorts.
“When we were digging we found horseshoes, harness, uniform buttons and other things. It was the site of the larger of two fort stables. We saved some of the stuff in a box but I haven’t seen it for a while,” he said.
History on file in the county library mentions that there were two stables, the smaller stood in the present fort grounds area where horses and equipment were kept ready for immediate use.
According to Hough, the larger stable, the blacksmith shops and carriage houses were in the area of the family home. This location was probably chosen because it was high ground, away from the fort buildings that were plagued by flooding.
Historical records reveal that the military steadily decreased the number of soldiers stationed at the fort and, in 1900, the federal government withdrew the last of the troops to deploy them to the Spanish-American War. As a result the 990-acre fort, established in 1878, was closed and the land put up for sale.
According to Hough, the school saw continuous use from 1905 until 1970, serving grades one through six.
“There were four classrooms, two on the first floor and two on the second floor. There was a large entry hall with a central stairway, that went up to the second floor. About halfway up was a landing.”
Hough attended school at Roosevelt between the years of 1962 and 1969 and remembers well what the school was like before it became a bed and breakfast inn,
After the school’s closure, the building was put to varied uses. For a time it was used for storage. In 1979, John Marias bought it and rented out office space, leaving the building in original condition. The Roosevelt School was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1970s. According to Hough, it is also on the state register.
Hough describes his memories of his student days: “The four classrooms were large with 18-foot ceilings and had about 30 students per room and discipline was strict.”
He recalls that a student who got out of line might be paddled, sent to the custodian to stoke the coal into the furnace or set to polishing the banisters of the staircase.
“Bad behavior was not tolerated,” Hough said.
He says that by the time he started school, the coal furnace had replaced the original heating system, which consisted of a stove in each room. “And each stove had its own flu that went up through a central chimney. This gave the individual stoves a good draft and prevented smoking.”
He also remembers the long, double sash windows. “When you slid a window open you could hear the weights rattle behind the framework.” He says that at the top of each window was a smaller window that opened with a long rod. The windows and the high ceilings provided a kind of air-conditioning.
Hough speaks with admiration of the school’s original construction. “The exterior walls are bearing walls,” he says. “At the base the bricks are 36 inches thick and, as the walls go upward, they decrease in thickness until at the top they measure 21 inches.” An engineering opinion given for the difference is that narrowing decreases the load on the underlying supports.
Describing the underlying structure, he said: “The building rests on 6-foot-by-4-foot granite footings and on top of them is the granite foundation, 42 inches thick. Huge wooden beams, made from enormous, single logs, run the length of the building.”
The basement is like a daylight basement – both above and below ground. Hough remembers the area as both lunch room and auditorium.
George Williams, who also designed the Masonic Temple, the electric sub station, Central High School and other Coeur d’Alene buildings, was the architect.
When Hough and his wife, Tina, bought the Roosevelt six years ago, most of the changes had been made to the interior and it already was operating as a bed and breakfast.
According to Hough, the interior had been gutted and the two upper floors were rebuilt so that there are now three floors to accommodate more rooms. For this reason windows were altered The stairway, although moved, is original as is the flooring on the first floor. The bell tower remains but is now enclosed and houses a sitting room reached from a third-floor suite.
The Houghs researched original documents that afford a glimpse of life during the school’s early days. “We looked at files stored in the Coeur d’Alene School Board’s historical archives One file had a list of rules and requirements for teachers. One of these stated that women teachers ‘…must wear no less than three petticoats.’ Teachers could not leave town without permission and must be back by a stated time. One man was unable to get back on time and was fired. But he was then rehired for the next year.”
There is one mystery that the Houghs have not been able to solve. “We don’t know what became of the large painting of Roosevelt that used to hang in the entry. We would love to find out,” he says.
Plans for the future include a restaurant in the building’s large basement. Recently the Roosevelt received the commendation from Inn Traveler Magazine for the best breakfast served at a Pacific Northwest bed and breakfast inn.
All of this is proof that a historic building can have a new life while preserving our past. As Roosevelt might have said, “Bully!”