Abandoned Idaho college up for auction
ALBION, Idaho – An abandoned state teachers college in remote southern Idaho goes on the auction block Saturday in what local officials hope will be the first step in revitalizing a campus that was once home to nearly 1,000 students.
The auction company hired to sell the former Albion State Normal School in this community where the mountains rise up out of the desert near the Utah border has received inquiries from Arizona, California, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Washington.
Although the school has been mostly shuttered since the Idaho Legislature cut off funding in 1951, some in this town of 300 hope a buyer could turn the property into a resort. The place is in the middle of nowhere between the Snake River and the Great Salt Lake, but optimistic locals point out that the small Pomerelle ski area, home to some of the highest-annual snowfalls in the state, is about a half hour away.
Another big reason for selling the place: Keeping up the six brick buildings is a drain on local resources, so the town wants somebody else with deeper pockets and a vision to step in, said Don Bowden, Albion’s mayor.
“The little city of Albion doesn’t have the wherewithal or the tax base to do much with it,” Bowden told the Idaho State-Journal.
The college was founded in 1893 and had 942 students in 1924. But since its demise in 1951, the town has been slipping in population. At the start of this century, there were just 77 people here under 19, according to the U.S. census.
“It used to be big here, I guess,” said Jasmine Yadon, who works in the gas station across the street from the vacant campus and grew up in Albion. “But I’ve never known it to be big.”
Randy Wells, an auctioneer from Post Falls hired to sell the college, called it “the most unique property” he’s sold in 20 years. Some buildings – windows boarded, paint peeling – are on the National Historic Register.
“I hope they leave the buildings up,” Wells said of a potential buyer. “I think the community hopes that as well. There’s definitely not many opportunities with historic buildings like these.”
After it was shuttered, various endeavors from a church school to an arts festival to a dog food manufacturer attempted to use the campus. Those eventually sputtered, and in 1970, the state gave the property to Albion.
Potential buyers this Saturday will inherit a $250,000 clean-up grant from the city of Albion to help remove asbestos insulation.
The city has set an undisclosed minimum bid, Bowden has said, and if no one reaches it at the public auction Albion could cancel the sale within 24 hours.