Celebrating 125 Years: Forging the Greatest Generation (1929-1948)

Original Entry, Boise Gallery of Art (1936)

Unlike many cities hard hit in the Depression, Boise held steady and continued to grow.  During the late 1930s the Basque migration to Idaho and Utah was in full swing.  Gowen Field was a training facility during WW II and further stimulated valley growth.  Charles V. “Ike” Wayland, son of the senior Wayland, joined the firm in 1929 and the practice centered on hospital, school, financial, commercial, and public projects.  In 1938 James Fennell returned to California.  



Art Deco Idaho Power Building (1932) was originally white; this is c.1990 after updates.

Notable projects of this period include the original Idaho Power Building (1932) and the original Boise Gallery of Art, now BAM (1936), buildings for the new Boise Junior College starting in 1940, the Veterans’ Home, Department of Highways and Law Enforcement Building and architectural design assistance for the Capitol Boulevard and Payette River (McCall highway) Bridges.  The firm was associate architect for the Ada County Courthouse (1938), and in 1939 completed a small project for Morrison Knudson, forging a relationship that lasted over 50 years.  The downtown Eddie’s Bakery, known to generations of Idaho second-graders, was built in 1942 at a cost of $18,342.  –

 

CSHQA Celebrates 125 Years: Establishing Boise 1889 - 1928

Idanha Hotel, Boise, ID, W.S. Campbell drawing on linen

CSHQA is 125 this year!  Founded by a Scotsman in the Idaho Territory, CSHQA has evolved and grown, persevered and transformed from a one-man office to a national firm with regional resources serving 50 states and two provinces.  Over the next few weeks, we will post our story in multiple parts.  Part I:

1889 marked Idaho’s last year as a territory, the establishment of the University of Idaho in Moscow, and the arrival by train of William S. Campbell, Architect, of Edinburgh, Scotland in the capital city of Boise.  Early commissions for W.S. Campbell, Architects were residential, commercial and school projects.  In 1900 Charles W. Wayland, a Bostonian who studied architectural art and science, and gained practical experience as a draftsman in Duluth, Minnesota joined the firm. Campbell & Wayland made their partnership official and carried on the practice until 1903 when Campbell returned to his native Scotland. Wayland took over and in 1904 James Fennel, a member of the first class to graduate from California’s original school of architecture (John Hopkins Institution of Art and Architecture), became Wayland’s partner and the firm became known as Wayland and Fennel, Architects.  Spurred on by the arrival of irrigation in 1902, the valley prospered and steadily grew.

Notable buildings by W.S. Campbell, C.W. Wayland, and J.A. Fennel include:
Sonna Building 3-story addition, 910 Main Street (1891)
Telephone Building, 609 Main Street (1899)
Idanha Hotel, 928 Main Street (Opened New Year’s Day 1901)
“Granite Hall” R. M. Davidson residence, 1205 Warm Springs Ave. (1901)
Federal Building (Borah Station Post Office), 8^th & Idaho (1902)
Saint Alphonsus Hospital, 5^th & State Streets (c. 1903)
Central Fire Station, 200 N 6^th Street (1903)
Albion Normal (teaching) School (1907)
Mary McCarty Building, 9^th & Idaho (1909)
Twin Falls (1908) and Baker City (1909) Carnegie Libraries
Idaho Statesman Building, 601 Main Street (1910)
Charles and Margaret Davidson residence, 945 Warms Springs Ave (1916)
Frank Parsons and Anna Moore Parsons (daughter of C.W. Moore) residence, 1127 Warm Springs Ave (1925)
Strahorn Hall, College of Idaho (1925)
El Korah Shrine Temple, 118 W Idaho St (1928)
Early buildings for St. Luke’s Hospital (early 20’s)

Next:  Forging the Greatest Generation 1929 – 1948