Former School Building in Idaho is now a Hotel
Roosevelt School, Coeur d'Alene Idaho
Architect George Williams, who enjoyed a regional reputation as a specialist in schools, was the designer of this building. It is a good example of his early work, done just after he arrived in Coeur d'Alene in 1903. It is the only similar building preserved in the area. As a restored building, located near the county courthouse, it can have an impact on local historic preservation efforts through its example. Adaptive use as an office building had been arranged by the owner.
School buildings in this area have rarely remained in use for more than six decades, and unless some other basis for preservation can be found, no examples of any kind of early twentieth-century school architecture (or of any other kind of school architecture, for that matter) will survive. This building continued as a school for about six decades without significant alteration.
Now restored and known as the Roosevelt Inn, there are currently plans to demolish the building for a housing development. Currently (June 2024) the City has put a temporary moratorium on demolition and exterior alteration permits.
Coeur d'Alene moves to save Roosevelt Inn, other historic buildings from demolition
Building Description
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho's Roosevelt School, erected in 1905, is a two-story brick structure of quaint design combining elements of Queen Anne and Romanesque character.
The four classrooms are arranged two on each floor balancing a central hall and stairway. These rooms form projecting bays on east and west elevations. Each is well-lit by five windows, a group of three dominating the east and west facades of the bays.
A rich pattern in the red brick fabric is achieved through the use of a raised basement of black basalt with light mortar, topped by a band course of cream-colored pressed brick six bricks high, and segmental arches over all the windows of the same material. Other light-brock band courses mark the window sill levels on both stories and the base of the brick corbel course at the roofline.
The roof is hipped. A shingled belfry, painted to match the pressed brick, continues a front bay above the entry to form a low square tower on the south facade. The louvered openings in this tower, two on each side, are round-arched. Fish-scale cut shingles decorate this tower and a low porch over the entry.
Looking north from street toward front (1976)
