Reduced to ashes
In 1917, prohibition of liquor sales became law in Idaho, the United States entered World War I and most of Harrison burned to the ground. The bustling lumber town, named for Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president of the United States, had sprouted on the east shore of the lake at the mouth of the Coeur d’Alene River after incorporation in 1897. According to records, the community had, at one time, 3,000 residents and was the largest town on the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Everything was in the town’s favor, with its location surrounded by abundant natural resources – timber and minerals. Belching black smoke, steamboats such as the Georgie Oaks plied the lake, tying up at Harrison’s docks to discharge and take on both passengers and cargo. The Oregon Railway and Navigation Co., later a Union Pacific spur line, ran its tracks along the lake and through the town to serve the mining country to the east.
But on the morning of July 21, an ill wind brought no good. Reportedly, a fire that started in the drying kilns of the Grant Lumber Co. spread to the town when gusts, blowing off the lake, carried sparks into the awnings of businesses situated along the main street which was just above the mill site. It wasn’t long before the wooden buildings themselves were in flames, and by nightfall the original Harrison business district was reduced to ashes and charred wood.
On the registration form listing the Harrison Commercial Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places, Nancy Renk wrote: “…The entire business district was in flames. Firefighters were hampered when the canvas hoses burned along with the chemical wagons … more than 25 dwellings were destroyed, along with two lumber mills, nearly 30 businesses, four churches, two meeting halls, the water works, utility company, city clerk’s office and a boarding house.”
The fire was a disaster from which the town never really recovered. Lacking insurance, most business owners did not rebuild. Fires starting in drying kilns have never been unusual and, in those days, it certainly was not unheard of to have whole towns and cities, mostly of wood construction, go up in flames. However, many of the towns rebuilt to become more prosperous than before.
But times were changing. A recession, beginning in the early 1920s, was on its way with a decreased demand for lumber. Some merchants did rebuild immediately after the fire, and by 1918 six new, fire-resistant brick structures lined the main street, also Highway 97. These are the buildings that comprise the present-day Harrison Commercial Historic District.
The brick buildings are modest, fairly plain and functional, like similar structures built all across the country during these years.
Our tour begins on the northwest side of the downtown with a narrow, two-story building, listed as the Armstrong Garage, which began life as a theater complete with stage, balcony and projection booth. Sometime in the 1930s the theater was converted into an auto garage, fronted with a large picture window and a sliding wooden door large enough to accommodate automobiles. The building, which has an apartment on the second floor, is no longer used as a garage.
To the south is a vacant lot, and next to that is the Masonic Temple, a large, two-story building which, because of the sloping lot, has what might be described as a daylight basement. Today the building is home to two business, Bev’s, a specialty shop and, next door, the Steamboat Trader.
South of that is the City Park, the site of buildings that were never reconstructed after the fire. Further south is the I.O.O.F. Hall. While the front façade, facing Coeur d’Alene Avenue (Highway 97) has only two stories, the rear, due to the slope of the lot, essentially creates a third, usable level.
Over the years the hall, with its corner entry way, has had a variety of uses, including a grocery store, a meat market, a sewing machine manufacturing shop and, more recently, a real estate office. The structure, notably, in the lower back section, has for years been home to the fabled One-Shot Charlie’s, a destination watering hole for boaters and locals.
Across the street, on the east side of Coeur d’Alene Avenue, is a structure listed as the “Marlier and Brass/Paulsen Grocery store.” The facade of this one-story building has undergone minor alteration by the covering of front walls with plywood sheeting and installation of plate glass windows and glass doors. A shingled awning extends over the sidewalk.
Since 1944, the Harrison Grange No. 422 has owned and occupied the south half of the building. The north bay of the building has had several businesses over the years
The post office today occupies the Corskie building which the Corskie brothers, John and J.M., built after their frame drugstore, also at that site, was destroyed by the fire.
Directly north is the Bridgeman building, now the Harrison Mercantile and the anchor store of the business district. Wayne S. Bridgeman built the one-story structure for his furniture business and, according to the register nomination, he operated it until 1938 when he sold it to “… H.D. Brownawell in 1938. Brownawell sold it in 1942.”
Prior to the 1917 fire, the block, now a city park contained 10 businesses. The register states: “The businesses present were modest enterprises such as saloons, restaurants, a meat market, a confectionery, a barber, a cobbler, a news stand and a boarding house.” All were of frame construction and all burned with nothing built to replace them.
The commercial district as listed in the National Register is far different from the original town that occupied the south shore of the mouth of the Coeur d’Alene River. Many of the lake steamers that once crowded the docks were set on fire and lie at the bottom of the lake, and the railroad is gone as are the mills that once lined the lake’s shores.
Nevertheless the simple, replacement building that are listed offer a glimpse of the ordinary business structures of the early part of the 20th century, much like other buildings in cities and towns across the country. The Harrison buildings themselves not only preserve a particular architectural style but also remain as tribute to the resilience of the human spirit that is willing to start over, rebuild, adapt and reinvent itself.