May 3, 2024 • 35 mins
Have you ever strolled through a neighborhood where every house tells a story? Today, we're privileged to sit with Cynthia from Moscow's Historic Preservation Commission, who guides us on an exploration of preserving the heart and soul of the city's historic homes. We discuss the delicate balance of maintaining neighborhood character and property values in the face of Moscow's expansion. For those passionate about history and community, Cynthia sheds light on how to preserve these cultural gems and navigate the resources at your fingertips.
Cynthia illuminates the vibrant colors that once denoted social standing and how they continue to influence today's restoration decisions. We traverse the historical lanes of the Carol Ryrie Brink home, exploring how the hues on our walls reflect our heritage.
Moscow's Orchid Awards celebrate those who keep history alive through their homes' facades. This episode is a guide for homeowners and history enthusiasts alike on how to honor tradition in modern renovations, from craftsmen and bungalow-style homes to the iconic 'swoopy roof' savings and loan building. So join us, as we uncover the hues of history and the craftsmanship that keeps the spirit of Moscow's historic districts alive for generations to come.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is the Kestrel Country Podcast, where we
discuss the people, places andevents all around.
(00:39):
Kestrel Country Podcast.
Thank you, I'm very excited.
We've tried to get Cynthia onfor a little bit and that's
because you're going to have tocorrect me you just told me it
was the historical preservationcommission for the city of
Moscow.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
The city has a few different commissions, quite a
few really, and this one is forhistoric preservation.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
So we are excited to jump in and talk about that, but
before we do, we want to learna little bit about you.
Okay, so tell us what broughtyou to Moscow.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
My parents did.
I was born in Pullman and afterbeing there five years, my dad
was finishing up at WashingtonState University.
He got a job over here with theForest Service doing research
and so we moved to Moscowresearch, and so we moved to
(01:28):
Moscow and I was in Moscow untilafter college when my husband
and I moved to Montana for 20years and then after that we
came back to help my parents outto pursue education for our son
.
So it was sort of like 25 yearsMoscow, 20 years Montana.
Now it's been another 21 backin Moscow.
Oh, wow, so definite ties here.
(01:49):
Yes, yes, and I'm just reallythankful to be here.
I love the tucked in feelingthat you get in the hills around
Moscow, moscow, the fact thatthe agriculture is close, but
you can get to Moscow Mountainand the ridges to the east
outside of Beauville Dairy forhuckleberry picking or firewood
(02:15):
chopping or whatever you need todo hiking, fishing my son and I
do tend to return to Montana tofly fish.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You prefer Montana fly fishing, I do.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I'm more familiar with it, I would say, and there
are a few particular streamsthat we fished when we were over
there and they still are prettydear to our hearts.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
We won't dig in and find out where they are.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I would try to be pretty general, which is how it
should be with a fishing hole.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
We haven't fly fished Montana, but we've done the
North Fork of the Clearwater,yes, which is gorgeous, and we
go up and drive through Montanaand then come back into Idaho
yes, typically to get there, yes, but it would be fun to go try
Montana fly fishing.
We're headed to Whitefish thissummer for our family trip,
which will be a first.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's a beautiful area .
It has grown so much in the 20years that we've been gone.
I returned one or two times andthere are a couple places that
were medium-sized towns butstill kind of sleepy when we
were there Bozeman, if you canbelieve it and Bozeman has just
really, really grown.
But we're happy to be in Moscowand be close to Montana because
(03:28):
Montana has that big sky ripthe roof off the world feeling
and Moscow has a tucked into aquilt feeling.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I like that.
It does You're right, and Ilike them both.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I'm thankful for them both.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And it is.
It's not that far.
I mean skiing at.
Lookout, you're on the borderright there between them,
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
That's fun.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Okay, so let's dive into what you do on the
commission.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Okay, there are spots for non-commissioners.
I think we have one opening,maybe two right now.
So if anyone is interested inMoscow's history or historic
neighborhoods, preservation ofthose, you are welcome to apply.
You can go on our website.
If you just Google MoscowHistoric Preservation Commission
(04:16):
, it comes up, and I think oneof the things I would like to
talk about is a flyer that weput together as a commission in
the last couple of years.
That's for Moscow homeowners,as a resource for them.
Moscow doesn't have regulations.
The city hasn't installedregulations Some people would
(04:40):
say imposed regulations on whatcan be done in historic
districts.
Moscow right now has twohistoric districts.
Downtown is a historic districtand then the Fort Russell area,
which is among the older partsof town.
There are other parts that areas old, but it generally goes
(05:01):
from 3rd Street north to D andfrom Hayes Street west to
Maine-ish Okay, but the bordersare very irregular.
But you can find it online too.
Yes, the city has not.
The city council has not beenrequested or pressured to impose
(05:23):
regulations for what can bedone to homes, at least on the
outside, in historic districts.
We on the commission are mostlyhappy with that.
We'd rather educate people andlet them do what they want
themselves.
But there are other historicpreservation interests in town,
in the county and in the statethat would like to see Moscow
(05:45):
have those regulations becausethey see some things that are
done in historic districts orolder districts, even if they're
not labeled historic, thatdon't respect the history of the
neighborhood, the history ofthe home and therefore the
beauty, in essence, of peoplewalking by or the neighbors who
(06:09):
live there, and also do notimprove economic value, resale
value, if you're trying to sellyour home and the people across
the street have put a roofaddition on a beautiful home
that looks more like a wart or abump or something.
You know a person will look atthat it's.
(06:29):
For some people it's likehaving the auto parts place
across your street where littleold junkers are brought in to
farm for parts.
It just can mar the consistentlook of a neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Oh for sure.
And home value.
We see that If there is a homethat's just falling down over
here and then this one in themiddle between two crumbling
homes is all cute, that's goingto play a factor in how much it
can sell.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Whereas.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
You know, whereas if you move that home across town
into a neighborhood that's allbeen remodeled, it'll be totally
different.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
That's that old adage .
It's location, location,location.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yes, and I think Moscow in the last couple of
years has been seeing a lot ofrelative for Moscow growth, a
lot of new people coming in, andI think Moscow is not as
obviously characteristic of aparticular time as somewhere
like Ipswich, massachusetts,would be, or certain Asheville.
(07:33):
North Carolina has a very artdeco neighborhood and Moscow's
is a little less obvious.
It's very eclectic.
Yes, and so people don'trealize that actually there are
areas that border Main Street,mostly to the east, but even
some to the west the Asbury,allman, llewellyn streets.
(07:54):
That were some of the firsthomes built here in the 1880s,
90s.
Yeah, when you get up into theFort Russell area east of Moscow
, it probably goes as late asabout 1940, 1950.
And then as you go further east, beyond Hayes and you get down
into Blaine, garfield, cleveland, you have some really fine
(08:16):
examples of 1950s, 60s homes,absolutely, and those aren't
always perceived as beingclassics of their time.
They look like little boxes butsome of them have really
distinctive fat fireplaces andbrick that goes around the front
door that continues thatfireplace.
(08:37):
It's kind of the mid-centurymodern that some people are
rediscovering now.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And it can be popular , really popular.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
And can be really lovely.
Sometimes you want to thinkabout trying to highlight what
hasn't been highlighted in thathome.
That makes it even a moredistinctive example of its time.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
And it can make it a more affordable way to do it too
.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You know, in terms of coming in and seeing something
and being like man, this home, Ican't add, you know, a hundred
grand to knock this half downand redo it Right, but but
focusing on it painting afireplace, you know it can.
It can just change the feelcompletely.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yes, or if you don't like the color of the fireplace,
there are some of those thatare kind of a pale pinkish.
But sometimes the home colorcan be used to tone that pink
look down.
And it might be historicallyappropriate because in the 50s
they were painting homes kind ofthat dull green or I don't know
(09:39):
, not exactly a mustard, butsome of those slightly earth
tone colors.
But they tone down thepinkishness of that pinkish
stone fireplace, chimney, frontdoor, look that some people now
just kind of clutch at and Ithink I would encourage people
to try to pause and look at thehome that they might have and
(10:03):
might want to be improving.
Look at the neighborhood it'sin.
Get online.
Online has so many resources totry to get some ideas of how
you can use what is classicabout the home of its era to
inexpensively enhance thatrather than changing it to where
(10:26):
it maybe is something you thinkyou like, but you might like
what's more historicallyappropriate for the neighborhood
if you just pause and think andresearch a little bit.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, that's great.
It is a good idea to do a lotof research.
It takes time, it does.
And paint colors for sure.
Yes, take time, yes, and trialand error.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yes, the commission did prepare this little flyer
that a good number of therealtors in town have copies of
that they've been handing outfor maybe a year now.
One side of it talks aboutwelcome you to Moscow.
It, excuse me, talks aboutwhere some of the historic
neighborhoods are, and they dogo farther out.
(11:08):
So it talks about where some ofthe historic neighborhoods are,
and they do go farther out.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Ridge.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Road on the south end of town is quite classic 50s,
60s, up into the 70s and so downnear the fairgrounds there are
off of Blaine and Cowse andCamas there are some very cool
examples of 50s 60s homes.
Let's see.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Before we leave the front side of this, can you talk
a little bit about the homesthat have either painted in the
historical way that they wereoriginally?
Are these examples of the onesthat, like Carol Ryrie Brink's
home, for example, very iconic?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yes, and it's in the Fort Russell Historic District.
It's on the corner of Polk and Ibelieve it's A Street, it's A
or B, I think it's A on thecorner, and it's a very
whimsical Queen Anne cottagestyle and that means it has a
bay window or bow window or justa main window with a dormer and
(12:08):
a gable over it.
That's in the front, and thennext to that, where the door is,
is the porch, and the QueenAnne was a very asymmetrical,
whimsical style and in this casewhat's wonderful about it is up
in the dormers.
Often Queen Anne and especiallyQueen Anne cottages had the
(12:29):
shingles, and this Carol RyrieBrink home particularly accents
those shingles, with even likean ombre gradation of the paints
from white to light pink todark pink, and then the home is
a medium pink.
There are other areas that arehighlighted with dark pink.
There are some Victorian homesthat may have those shingles up
(12:53):
in the dormer and people aretimid, maybe, about doing the
riotous colors that theVictorians really did.
We tend to think of those bigold homes.
Oh, they must be white.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Well, I think we also have the black and white photos
, so to try to imagine anythingin color it's really tricky.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yes, exactly, but this is an example showing that,
yeah, the Victorians reallyweren't afraid of color, and
even in their especially, maybein the different areas that they
had, the trim around theirwindows was usually dark.
And then just the differentparts of the home were
variations of colors Is this onewhat it was when originally
(13:36):
built.
I think it was because there wasa book written by a local woman
who was an amateur historian inthe early 80s.
Her name was Lillian Otnes.
The book is A Great GoodCountry.
It's not in print now.
If anybody wants to fundprinting it again, it would be a
really handy resource.
You sometimes can find themused online, and she does refer
(13:59):
to this house and one that's twodoors south of it.
They were called the PinkHouses, and this one was owned
by Carol Ryberry Brink's dad,and the one two houses to the
south was owned by her uncle.
It has been heavily remodeledand doesn't look like this one.
Apparently, they both looked alot like this when they were
first built, but it's nice tostill have this one, and so just
(14:24):
to encourage people withVictorian homes that have
dormers with shingles not to beafraid to consider not painting
it all white or all gray, but todo some fun things with the
colors of your home.
It is perhaps more expensive tobuy more variations of paint
and colors of paint rather thanall white, but paint, compared
(14:48):
to other things, is relativelycheap.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Right In terms of a remodel.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, the paint side of it can be more affordable.
It's interesting, we were justin Williamsburg for spring break
, oh fun.
And so, speaking of paint, thatcame up quite a bit because it
was expensive to have colors,certain colors, and so that
bright green, the Kermit greenyes, interior Interior.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
This was an interior.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
That Kermit green was a sign of wealth.
Yes, because of the process tomake it.
Yes, and of course they wantedto show that.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yes, and I think it was also an indication of what
science was developing andfinding.
I had read where one of ThomasJefferson's homes that the
historians had painted a mutedthat.
Yes, jefferson, who was all forthe latest avant-garde thing,
(15:51):
let's try this, let's do that.
Look at what they're doing nowhad used that color in that room
.
That's fun.
Yeah, there's a home on thecorner of C and Polk in Moscow
which is a wonderful corner, forthere's a colonial revival home
, a giant, I don't know what youcall the Mark Miller home.
(16:11):
It's a craftsman on steroids orsomething, and then a sort of a
colonial revival that almostlooks Southern antebellum.
And then the fourth house thatI think sometimes is overlooked
because it's set back a littlefarther in some trees, is a real
Victorian with two porches andit's painted this almost purple,
(16:33):
blue and almost lime green,yellow.
But when you read the earlierhistory about it, its colors are
blue and yellow and I rememberas a child going by that
intersection and thinking whydid those people do that?
People do that, that's sohideous.
And then come to find out well,because that's more accurate,
(16:55):
that's actually what it lookedlike.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
The trends.
It's so funny.
It's fun to dig in and find outthe why behind some of it.
Or sometimes it's justpreference, but even now, of
course, to see trends.
Colors are such a trendy thing.
We pick a color of the year andyou know, all of that is
involved with it.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yes, Part of, I think , what sparked the commission to
do this flyer is we had seen afew homes older homes, painted
black and we were kind of likewhy did they do that?
It was surprising and didn'tseem.
It's not like they weremagnificent, standout examples
(17:37):
of their period.
They were smallish homes butstill black is a real, or has
been a real popular, trendy,current color.
Some of the big farmhouse-ylooking homes that are either
painted almost all white withblack trim or all black.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Or all black?
Yes, For sure.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Such a dark gray with black trim that they look all
black Right.
And so seeing a couple of homeson the edges of some of the
older districts painted thatcolor, and I don't think there's
any historical reason for that,I think it's just because it's
been trendy.
So the commission kind ofdiscussed it and thought, well,
(18:16):
that's the kind of thing thatmight make some preservationists
say, see, we need rules, weneed regulations, we need to
stop this and we would rathereducate people, right?
I agree, yes, and justencourage you that not all
things require a lot of money.
They do require some researchand some looking at what might
(18:42):
be appropriate possibilities.
And then, where can I findresources to do those at a
reasonable price?
Yeah, so anyway, the flyer talksabout Moscow's neighborhoods
and there's also a little bitabout our Orchid Awards, which
(19:06):
are annual home that are inkeeping with the history of the
home and the neighborhood,either returning it to something
more historically appropriateor, if it's an addition, an
addition that's done well.
That's not a big box loomingbehind a cute little cottage
(19:30):
that has different siding on it,or something like that.
That's an extreme example, butwe do see that happen sometimes.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
We do, and it's fun when you know obviously there's
certain upgrades that you reallywant you know, and whether it's
adding in air conditioning orcentral heat or all of those
things that are going toincrease the value of the home
and things that way, but how todo it in a way that looks
beautiful and it's interesting.
So my great-grandparents hadthe home on the corner of 6th
(20:00):
and South Hays and then mygrandparents built two doors
down on South Hays but adifferent person had owned that
one and I think in the 70s theydropped the ceilings.
Yes, you know, yes, and I'm notsure if those have.
I think those have been raisednow.
But certain things like that,where you know there was, oh,
there was a trend Kind of backto your point on understanding
(20:22):
the bone structure and thearchitecture of the home and
making because upgrades aregreat, but making them in a way
that fits everything and, ofcourse, if you've got tall
ceilings, oh man.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yes, they're wonderful.
They're wonderful, but they'realso more costly to heat the
heating bill.
I live in an older Queen Annecottage style home and the
ceilings had been lowered.
But the home was built in 1889.
So it's pretty old for Moscow,but they don't think the
ceilings had been lowered.
But the home was built in 1889.
So it's pretty old for Moscow.
But they don't think theceilings were dropped in the 70s
when there was the energycrisis and so many people were
(20:55):
doing that.
They tend to think they weredone maybe in the 30s or 40s
because of the noise upstairsand we have since raised them
and or I don't want to say raisethem removed the lower ceiling
that was put in and when peopleare upstairs there are crawl
spaces around the edges upstairsand when children are up there
(21:17):
playing and running and crawlingyou really can hear it
downstairs.
But I don't mind that the highceilings and it's not like
children are up there trompingall the time.
But those are interior thingsthat make the inside more
livable and the commissionreally doesn't address those.
(21:38):
Again, that's not ourresponsibility.
I guess it's more the idea ofretaining the historic feel of
neighborhoods and respect forthat and property values.
So we look more at the exteriorsand there are additions that
have been done, that arebeautiful or that are hidden in
(22:00):
behind, so it's not like you areconstrained to the small size
or the small rooms.
People, in my home I did takedown some walls because at the
time it was built it was threetiny, tiny rooms that were
really pretty claustrophobic andit had been remodeled a lot
over the years to where, evenfrom the front entry, the access
(22:22):
to one of the front rooms, youhad to go around through all the
other rooms to get to it.
I don't think that was original, but I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah Well, and small rooms would have been much more
cost-effective to heat.
Yes, back in the day.
Yes, you know, ours was a 1920.
We're pretty positive it was aSears kit house.
Oh fun.
Yes, so probably would have hadto come across on the train.
Yes, but that difference frombeing outside of town to inside
of town was, you know, woodwalls in the inside and when we
(22:51):
started remodeling there wasnewspaper you know, used versus
like plaster in town, would haveprobably been more expensive.
And so on a farm outside down.
That makes sense, yes, butagain it was smaller rooms and
so we removed walls, opened itup, that kind of thing too, yes,
and that makes the home insidemore livable, but you can do
that without marring the outside.
(23:14):
As far as a historicalcompatibility, Right this weird
bulge in a funny way, where theroof line is not coming in
correctly, or that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And then this flyer also talks about the Orchid
Awards that the commissionpresents.
And then on the flip side, itgives some examples of some of
the styles of homes that are inMoscow.
Particularly these address theFort Russell historic area,
because that period of buildingin the Fort Russell covers, you
(23:46):
know, four, five, six decadesmaybe.
So there's quite a variety anda good chunk of them you might
call Victorian.
But even the Victorians had alot of different colonial
revival, Gothic revival, Tudorrevival.
They were hearkening back toold, yeah, so we're hearkening
back to old, yeah.
And then of course there'sCraftsman and Bungalow and
(24:07):
Foursquare that are newer styles.
And then there are also a listof resources, websites.
I've had to go in and changethe links on some of those,
because links change they do,and so these may not be all
precisely accurate.
(24:27):
But if you just go in andGoogle historic home styles,
historic home style paint colors, there's a New England homes
website, there's one from LongBeach, California, there's one
from Ipswich, Massachusetts,Even paint companies Sherwin
Williams, Valspar, BenjaminMoore they will have historic
(24:51):
paint colors.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Which is nice.
It is Because it can be sooverwhelming to have a ton of
paint anyways.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
So when it's already narrowed down for you it helps
and they typically will narrowthem down, like to a craftsman
or a mid-century, modern or aparticular Victorian eras.
That help Because, for example,greek revival, which was one of
the earlier Victorian styles Ithink there are a few of those
in Moscow those homes often arewhite and should stay white,
(25:21):
because they were hearkeningback to Grecian temples that
were marble or limestone orwhatever, and so they weren't
the riotous color that you findwith some later Queen Anne and
other Victorian styles, and evencraftsmen have multiple colors,
but more muted nature, darkercolors.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
No, it's such a fascinating thing to start
digging into.
It is for me.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
And so, and for us on the we on the commission, we
want to help encourage people toeven if it's not their thing,
if they're going to buy ahistoric home and or a home in
an area of a certain age to tryto be respectful of that Cause
in the long run it helps themwith property value and it
(26:07):
certainly makes their neighborsthink more kindly of them.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And there are some choices back then that were not
probably the ones you have topick.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
That's right.
That's right.
If there are extreme thingsabout your home, you can do
things to tone those down withpaint.
Yes, for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So can you give us a couple examples of orchid
winners?
I know the house we had listedover on A Street was the
Spotswood home and they had wonone for that porch addition.
They did that faced was itfacing A or was it facing well,
regardless, the one porch that'son the house?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
They won an Orchid Award, yes, so what are some
other examples in the recentyears?
Oh, let's see if I can evenremember.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
That's not my strong suit.
There was one over on C Street,I think C and Cherry.
That was sort of a I guess youwould call it a bungalow and
it's on our flyer but it lookslike one that could be in the
Fort Russell district.
But it just is a reminder thatwhen you go west of Main Street
(27:16):
there are neighborhoods therethat have some older craftsmen,
in this case bungalow stylehomes, and it has what's called
a hip roof.
The dormers, instead of beingpointed in the front, they bend
down and it's verycharacteristic.
That family added an extension,an addition, a little to the
(27:37):
back to the west, and it wasreally just a long, two-story
rectangular box which was aneasy addition to build.
But then they echoed the hiproof design, so it looks like
the rest of the home and wassited similarly, painted,
similarly roofed all the same.
(27:58):
So that was an example that wevery much appreciated, being
outside the Fort Russell area,but also thoughtfully done.
You know, not just a box stuckon but a relatively cheap shape
to build, but with the properwindows and the hip roof.
(28:23):
Again, let's see what others.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
It's some years ago but my in-laws when they owned
the Butterfield House on PolkStreet, they got an Orchid Award
for their remodel as well.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yes, Now did they add to the roof in the back.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
They did.
They added some windows, a rowof windows, it was dormers, that
they bumped it out and reallymade that upstairs a very usable
space.
Yes, yes, but then it didn'tchange the look from the front
Right and all of it is just verywell done.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yes, and even from the back.
Adding that long dormer to theback of a long roof, like that
is really not uncommon.
That was something that peopledid in colonial times or and and
since then, or like if you hada home oh, you know they did
this in England.
If you had a home that was arectangle, it was very frequent
(29:19):
that they would extend it whenthey had more money and needed
more room, into a T shape withan addition in the back, or an H
shape with two wings on theside, and it could just keep
growing and growing Without itlooking weird Right.
It didn't impede the front ofthe home and its look from the
(29:41):
curb, and that one is a goodexample.
My home won one in 2019.
And the biggest thing I did tothe outside, I would say, was,
like I said, it's a Queen Annecottage style.
Over the years, the porch hadbeen removed.
And so it was just cement stepswith the wrought iron handrails
(30:03):
going up to the front door.
And when I first saw it I likedthe home.
It had been sited with shinglesso it looked a little more like
a lake cabin or something.
But I really liked it.
But just thinking about it,looking at it, I did some
research, realized it was aQueen Anne Cottage style home
and it really should have aporch.
(30:23):
And that was so nice because Iremember looking at it and
thinking it looked like it wasmissing teeth or something and I
didn't know why.
And then when I finally lookedit up and saw, oh, that's why
there's no porch anymore.
And then also because we had tochange that and the siding was
old.
The shingle siding wasn'treally original to it, it would
(30:47):
have been more clapboard withpossibly the little shingles up
in the dormer, and so that'swhat I went with when we had to
recite it.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
And with your color choices too.
I'm assuming you dug in.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yes, I did.
The gold on the main part ofthe home is called Gilded Age
because it's from the late 80s,early 90s colors.
And then I'm not sure that theaqua blue that I picked is
particularly historical.
I think theirs were probablyeither brighter, deeper blues or
maybe darker blues.
(31:20):
It's just one that I reallylike, and I knew that if the
fellow down the road could havelime green then I was going to
try to have aqua blue.
Yeah, so I think again, you gowith what is as close to
historical as you can, but I didtake some liberties there.
(31:41):
I wish now, when I replaced thewindows, that I would have put
in ones that the interior trimof the windows would have been
darker, because that wastypically in those Victorian
homes.
The sashes in the windows werethe dark highlights, and then
the other colors were appliedelsewhere, and black or dark
blue probably would have beenmore appropriate for my home.
(32:03):
I didn't know that at the time.
It's a learning process and wejust made this flyer and it's on
the Historic Preservationwebsite.
There's an area that'sresources down on the right side
and I think it's called Welcometo Moscow.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Okay, well, and we can put links in the notes too
for the podcast.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Okay, good, so it is a learning process, but we just
want to encourage people to takea little time, do a little
research, give a little thoughtbefore you just buy the huge
truckload of siding because it'scheap and put it on everything
(32:47):
you do.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Or two remnants and use both of them.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yes, yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Well, cynthia, thank you so much.
You're so welcome Winding downhere.
Is there any last thoughts thatyou have?
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Let me just double check.
I don't think so.
I think that's mostly just.
Oh.
The Historic PreservationCommission right now is working
on a sign about FriendshipSquare.
We have done the signs that areon the old post office which is
(33:23):
now City Hall, the one on there, our Carnegie Library.
We are working on helping thisget a national historic
preservation designation forthat.
I call it the swoopy roofbuilding.
Oh, yes, on A Street, and Mainthe water building, but it was
the first savings and loan thatwas built in Moscow.
(33:45):
I remember seeing it in 63 whenI was here and it first went up
and just thinking, what is that?
Yes, and now I really like it.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Well, it's very iconic it is, and as a kid it
was one of the ones you're likeman that'd be so fun to slide
down Exactly, or sled down inthe window, yes, or skateboard.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
What a skateboard thing, exactly, you know.
So that has been recognizedstatewide, but they're working
on getting it recognizednationally.
Wow, the man who designed itdid banks all over California.
I think there's another one insouthern Idaho these mid-century
Interesting yes, thesemid-century yes, so that we are
there.
There's an effort by somestudents and classes and
(34:32):
architecture and historian folksup at the U of I to get a
historic district up there too.
At the U of I.
Yes, with the collegiate Gothicbuildings that are the center of
the campus, so a lot is goingon.
Yeah, if you're at allinterested, of the campus, so a
lot is going on.
If you're at all interested, Ijust encourage you to look at
the County Historic Society hasarchives.
There are archived Moscowphotos at the U of I archives.
(34:55):
There's an OTT collection.
That's fabulous.
The county has a wonderfulhistoric preservation commission
that is working on things inDerry Beauville, troy.
Troy has a strong historicpreservation group.
So if you're interested, it'sactive and going.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
That's fun.
Oh, it's fun to learn about it.
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Oh, thank you.
Encourage people this way.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
We would rather encourage them and educate than
have restrictions.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yes, put in place, I think many of us would, most of
us would yes.
So yeah, well, cynthia, thankyou.
Thank you, catherine.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Thanks for joining us .
Like, share, subscribe.
We'll see you next week.
This is the Kestrel Country Podcast, where we
discuss the people, places andevents all around.
(00:39):
Kestrel Country Podcast.
Thank you, I'm very excited.
We've tried to get Cynthia onfor a little bit and that's
because you're going to have tocorrect me you just told me it
was the historical preservationcommission for the city of
Moscow.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
The city has a few different commissions, quite a
few really, and this one is forhistoric preservation.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
So we are excited to jump in and talk about that, but
before we do, we want to learna little bit about you.
Okay, so tell us what broughtyou to Moscow.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
My parents did.
I was born in Pullman and afterbeing there five years, my dad
was finishing up at WashingtonState University.
He got a job over here with theForest Service doing research
and so we moved to Moscowresearch, and so we moved to
(01:28):
Moscow and I was in Moscow untilafter college when my husband
and I moved to Montana for 20years and then after that we
came back to help my parents outto pursue education for our son
.
So it was sort of like 25 yearsMoscow, 20 years Montana.
Now it's been another 21 backin Moscow.
Oh, wow, so definite ties here.
(01:49):
Yes, yes, and I'm just reallythankful to be here.
I love the tucked in feelingthat you get in the hills around
Moscow, moscow, the fact thatthe agriculture is close, but
you can get to Moscow Mountainand the ridges to the east
outside of Beauville Dairy forhuckleberry picking or firewood
(02:15):
chopping or whatever you need todo hiking, fishing my son and I
do tend to return to Montana tofly fish.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You prefer Montana fly fishing, I do.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I'm more familiar with it, I would say, and there
are a few particular streamsthat we fished when we were over
there and they still are prettydear to our hearts.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
We won't dig in and find out where they are.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I would try to be pretty general, which is how it
should be with a fishing hole.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
We haven't fly fished Montana, but we've done the
North Fork of the Clearwater,yes, which is gorgeous, and we
go up and drive through Montanaand then come back into Idaho
yes, typically to get there, yes, but it would be fun to go try
Montana fly fishing.
We're headed to Whitefish thissummer for our family trip,
which will be a first.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's a beautiful area .
It has grown so much in the 20years that we've been gone.
I returned one or two times andthere are a couple places that
were medium-sized towns butstill kind of sleepy when we
were there Bozeman, if you canbelieve it and Bozeman has just
really, really grown.
But we're happy to be in Moscowand be close to Montana because
(03:28):
Montana has that big sky ripthe roof off the world feeling
and Moscow has a tucked into aquilt feeling.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I like that.
It does You're right, and Ilike them both.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I'm thankful for them both.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And it is.
It's not that far.
I mean skiing at.
Lookout, you're on the borderright there between them,
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
That's fun.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Okay, so let's dive into what you do on the
commission.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Okay, there are spots for non-commissioners.
I think we have one opening,maybe two right now.
So if anyone is interested inMoscow's history or historic
neighborhoods, preservation ofthose, you are welcome to apply.
You can go on our website.
If you just Google MoscowHistoric Preservation Commission
(04:16):
, it comes up, and I think oneof the things I would like to
talk about is a flyer that weput together as a commission in
the last couple of years.
That's for Moscow homeowners,as a resource for them.
Moscow doesn't have regulations.
The city hasn't installedregulations Some people would
(04:40):
say imposed regulations on whatcan be done in historic
districts.
Moscow right now has twohistoric districts.
Downtown is a historic districtand then the Fort Russell area,
which is among the older partsof town.
There are other parts that areas old, but it generally goes
(05:01):
from 3rd Street north to D andfrom Hayes Street west to
Maine-ish Okay, but the bordersare very irregular.
But you can find it online too.
Yes, the city has not.
The city council has not beenrequested or pressured to impose
(05:23):
regulations for what can bedone to homes, at least on the
outside, in historic districts.
We on the commission are mostlyhappy with that.
We'd rather educate people andlet them do what they want
themselves.
But there are other historicpreservation interests in town,
in the county and in the statethat would like to see Moscow
(05:45):
have those regulations becausethey see some things that are
done in historic districts orolder districts, even if they're
not labeled historic, thatdon't respect the history of the
neighborhood, the history ofthe home and therefore the
beauty, in essence, of peoplewalking by or the neighbors who
(06:09):
live there, and also do notimprove economic value, resale
value, if you're trying to sellyour home and the people across
the street have put a roofaddition on a beautiful home
that looks more like a wart or abump or something.
You know a person will look atthat it's.
(06:29):
For some people it's likehaving the auto parts place
across your street where littleold junkers are brought in to
farm for parts.
It just can mar the consistentlook of a neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Oh for sure.
And home value.
We see that If there is a homethat's just falling down over
here and then this one in themiddle between two crumbling
homes is all cute, that's goingto play a factor in how much it
can sell.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Whereas.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
You know, whereas if you move that home across town
into a neighborhood that's allbeen remodeled, it'll be totally
different.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
That's that old adage .
It's location, location,location.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yes, and I think Moscow in the last couple of
years has been seeing a lot ofrelative for Moscow growth, a
lot of new people coming in, andI think Moscow is not as
obviously characteristic of aparticular time as somewhere
like Ipswich, massachusetts,would be, or certain Asheville.
(07:33):
North Carolina has a very artdeco neighborhood and Moscow's
is a little less obvious.
It's very eclectic.
Yes, and so people don'trealize that actually there are
areas that border Main Street,mostly to the east, but even
some to the west the Asbury,allman, llewellyn streets.
(07:54):
That were some of the firsthomes built here in the 1880s,
90s.
Yeah, when you get up into theFort Russell area east of Moscow
, it probably goes as late asabout 1940, 1950.
And then as you go further east, beyond Hayes and you get down
into Blaine, garfield, cleveland, you have some really fine
(08:16):
examples of 1950s, 60s homes,absolutely, and those aren't
always perceived as beingclassics of their time.
They look like little boxes butsome of them have really
distinctive fat fireplaces andbrick that goes around the front
door that continues thatfireplace.
(08:37):
It's kind of the mid-centurymodern that some people are
rediscovering now.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And it can be popular , really popular.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
And can be really lovely.
Sometimes you want to thinkabout trying to highlight what
hasn't been highlighted in thathome.
That makes it even a moredistinctive example of its time.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
And it can make it a more affordable way to do it too
.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You know, in terms of coming in and seeing something
and being like man, this home, Ican't add, you know, a hundred
grand to knock this half downand redo it Right, but but
focusing on it painting afireplace, you know it can.
It can just change the feelcompletely.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yes, or if you don't like the color of the fireplace,
there are some of those thatare kind of a pale pinkish.
But sometimes the home colorcan be used to tone that pink
look down.
And it might be historicallyappropriate because in the 50s
they were painting homes kind ofthat dull green or I don't know
(09:39):
, not exactly a mustard, butsome of those slightly earth
tone colors.
But they tone down thepinkishness of that pinkish
stone fireplace, chimney, frontdoor, look that some people now
just kind of clutch at and Ithink I would encourage people
to try to pause and look at thehome that they might have and
(10:03):
might want to be improving.
Look at the neighborhood it'sin.
Get online.
Online has so many resources totry to get some ideas of how
you can use what is classicabout the home of its era to
inexpensively enhance thatrather than changing it to where
(10:26):
it maybe is something you thinkyou like, but you might like
what's more historicallyappropriate for the neighborhood
if you just pause and think andresearch a little bit.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, that's great.
It is a good idea to do a lotof research.
It takes time, it does.
And paint colors for sure.
Yes, take time, yes, and trialand error.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yes, the commission did prepare this little flyer
that a good number of therealtors in town have copies of
that they've been handing outfor maybe a year now.
One side of it talks aboutwelcome you to Moscow.
It, excuse me, talks aboutwhere some of the historic
neighborhoods are, and they dogo farther out.
(11:08):
So it talks about where some ofthe historic neighborhoods are,
and they do go farther out.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Ridge.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Road on the south end of town is quite classic 50s,
60s, up into the 70s and so downnear the fairgrounds there are
off of Blaine and Cowse andCamas there are some very cool
examples of 50s 60s homes.
Let's see.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Before we leave the front side of this, can you talk
a little bit about the homesthat have either painted in the
historical way that they wereoriginally?
Are these examples of the onesthat, like Carol Ryrie Brink's
home, for example, very iconic?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yes, and it's in the Fort Russell Historic District.
It's on the corner of Polk and Ibelieve it's A Street, it's A
or B, I think it's A on thecorner, and it's a very
whimsical Queen Anne cottagestyle and that means it has a
bay window or bow window or justa main window with a dormer and
(12:08):
a gable over it.
That's in the front, and thennext to that, where the door is,
is the porch, and the QueenAnne was a very asymmetrical,
whimsical style and in this casewhat's wonderful about it is up
in the dormers.
Often Queen Anne and especiallyQueen Anne cottages had the
(12:29):
shingles, and this Carol RyrieBrink home particularly accents
those shingles, with even likean ombre gradation of the paints
from white to light pink todark pink, and then the home is
a medium pink.
There are other areas that arehighlighted with dark pink.
There are some Victorian homesthat may have those shingles up
(12:53):
in the dormer and people aretimid, maybe, about doing the
riotous colors that theVictorians really did.
We tend to think of those bigold homes.
Oh, they must be white.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Well, I think we also have the black and white photos
, so to try to imagine anythingin color it's really tricky.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yes, exactly, but this is an example showing that,
yeah, the Victorians reallyweren't afraid of color, and
even in their especially, maybein the different areas that they
had, the trim around theirwindows was usually dark.
And then just the differentparts of the home were
variations of colors Is this onewhat it was when originally
(13:36):
built.
I think it was because there wasa book written by a local woman
who was an amateur historian inthe early 80s.
Her name was Lillian Otnes.
The book is A Great GoodCountry.
It's not in print now.
If anybody wants to fundprinting it again, it would be a
really handy resource.
You sometimes can find themused online, and she does refer
(13:59):
to this house and one that's twodoors south of it.
They were called the PinkHouses, and this one was owned
by Carol Ryberry Brink's dad,and the one two houses to the
south was owned by her uncle.
It has been heavily remodeledand doesn't look like this one.
Apparently, they both looked alot like this when they were
first built, but it's nice tostill have this one, and so just
(14:24):
to encourage people withVictorian homes that have
dormers with shingles not to beafraid to consider not painting
it all white or all gray, but todo some fun things with the
colors of your home.
It is perhaps more expensive tobuy more variations of paint
and colors of paint rather thanall white, but paint, compared
(14:48):
to other things, is relativelycheap.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Right In terms of a remodel.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, the paint side of it can be more affordable.
It's interesting, we were justin Williamsburg for spring break
, oh fun.
And so, speaking of paint, thatcame up quite a bit because it
was expensive to have colors,certain colors, and so that
bright green, the Kermit greenyes, interior Interior.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
This was an interior.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
That Kermit green was a sign of wealth.
Yes, because of the process tomake it.
Yes, and of course they wantedto show that.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yes, and I think it was also an indication of what
science was developing andfinding.
I had read where one of ThomasJefferson's homes that the
historians had painted a mutedthat.
Yes, jefferson, who was all forthe latest avant-garde thing,
(15:51):
let's try this, let's do that.
Look at what they're doing nowhad used that color in that room
.
That's fun.
Yeah, there's a home on thecorner of C and Polk in Moscow
which is a wonderful corner, forthere's a colonial revival home
, a giant, I don't know what youcall the Mark Miller home.
(16:11):
It's a craftsman on steroids orsomething, and then a sort of a
colonial revival that almostlooks Southern antebellum.
And then the fourth house thatI think sometimes is overlooked
because it's set back a littlefarther in some trees, is a real
Victorian with two porches andit's painted this almost purple,
(16:33):
blue and almost lime green,yellow.
But when you read the earlierhistory about it, its colors are
blue and yellow and I rememberas a child going by that
intersection and thinking whydid those people do that?
People do that, that's sohideous.
And then come to find out well,because that's more accurate,
(16:55):
that's actually what it lookedlike.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
The trends.
It's so funny.
It's fun to dig in and find outthe why behind some of it.
Or sometimes it's justpreference, but even now, of
course, to see trends.
Colors are such a trendy thing.
We pick a color of the year andyou know, all of that is
involved with it.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yes, Part of, I think , what sparked the commission to
do this flyer is we had seen afew homes older homes, painted
black and we were kind of likewhy did they do that?
It was surprising and didn'tseem.
It's not like they weremagnificent, standout examples
(17:37):
of their period.
They were smallish homes butstill black is a real, or has
been a real popular, trendy,current color.
Some of the big farmhouse-ylooking homes that are either
painted almost all white withblack trim or all black.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Or all black?
Yes, For sure.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Such a dark gray with black trim that they look all
black Right.
And so seeing a couple of homeson the edges of some of the
older districts painted thatcolor, and I don't think there's
any historical reason for that,I think it's just because it's
been trendy.
So the commission kind ofdiscussed it and thought, well,
(18:16):
that's the kind of thing thatmight make some preservationists
say, see, we need rules, weneed regulations, we need to
stop this and we would rathereducate people, right?
I agree, yes, and justencourage you that not all
things require a lot of money.
They do require some researchand some looking at what might
(18:42):
be appropriate possibilities.
And then, where can I findresources to do those at a
reasonable price?
Yeah, so anyway, the flyer talksabout Moscow's neighborhoods
and there's also a little bitabout our Orchid Awards, which
(19:06):
are annual home that are inkeeping with the history of the
home and the neighborhood,either returning it to something
more historically appropriateor, if it's an addition, an
addition that's done well.
That's not a big box loomingbehind a cute little cottage
(19:30):
that has different siding on it,or something like that.
That's an extreme example, butwe do see that happen sometimes.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
We do, and it's fun when you know obviously there's
certain upgrades that you reallywant you know, and whether it's
adding in air conditioning orcentral heat or all of those
things that are going toincrease the value of the home
and things that way, but how todo it in a way that looks
beautiful and it's interesting.
So my great-grandparents hadthe home on the corner of 6th
(20:00):
and South Hays and then mygrandparents built two doors
down on South Hays but adifferent person had owned that
one and I think in the 70s theydropped the ceilings.
Yes, you know, yes, and I'm notsure if those have.
I think those have been raisednow.
But certain things like that,where you know there was, oh,
there was a trend Kind of backto your point on understanding
(20:22):
the bone structure and thearchitecture of the home and
making because upgrades aregreat, but making them in a way
that fits everything and, ofcourse, if you've got tall
ceilings, oh man.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yes, they're wonderful.
They're wonderful, but they'realso more costly to heat the
heating bill.
I live in an older Queen Annecottage style home and the
ceilings had been lowered.
But the home was built in 1889.
So it's pretty old for Moscow,but they don't think the
ceilings had been lowered.
But the home was built in 1889.
So it's pretty old for Moscow.
But they don't think theceilings were dropped in the 70s
when there was the energycrisis and so many people were
(20:55):
doing that.
They tend to think they weredone maybe in the 30s or 40s
because of the noise upstairsand we have since raised them
and or I don't want to say raisethem removed the lower ceiling
that was put in and when peopleare upstairs there are crawl
spaces around the edges upstairsand when children are up there
(21:17):
playing and running and crawlingyou really can hear it
downstairs.
But I don't mind that the highceilings and it's not like
children are up there trompingall the time.
But those are interior thingsthat make the inside more
livable and the commissionreally doesn't address those.
(21:38):
Again, that's not ourresponsibility.
I guess it's more the idea ofretaining the historic feel of
neighborhoods and respect forthat and property values.
So we look more at the exteriorsand there are additions that
have been done, that arebeautiful or that are hidden in
(22:00):
behind, so it's not like you areconstrained to the small size
or the small rooms.
People, in my home I did takedown some walls because at the
time it was built it was threetiny, tiny rooms that were
really pretty claustrophobic andit had been remodeled a lot
over the years to where, evenfrom the front entry, the access
(22:22):
to one of the front rooms, youhad to go around through all the
other rooms to get to it.
I don't think that was original, but I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah Well, and small rooms would have been much more
cost-effective to heat.
Yes, back in the day.
Yes, you know, ours was a 1920.
We're pretty positive it was aSears kit house.
Oh fun.
Yes, so probably would have hadto come across on the train.
Yes, but that difference frombeing outside of town to inside
of town was, you know, woodwalls in the inside and when we
(22:51):
started remodeling there wasnewspaper you know, used versus
like plaster in town, would haveprobably been more expensive.
And so on a farm outside down.
That makes sense, yes, butagain it was smaller rooms and
so we removed walls, opened itup, that kind of thing too, yes,
and that makes the home insidemore livable, but you can do
that without marring the outside.
(23:14):
As far as a historicalcompatibility, Right this weird
bulge in a funny way, where theroof line is not coming in
correctly, or that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And then this flyer also talks about the Orchid
Awards that the commissionpresents.
And then on the flip side, itgives some examples of some of
the styles of homes that are inMoscow.
Particularly these address theFort Russell historic area,
because that period of buildingin the Fort Russell covers, you
(23:46):
know, four, five, six decadesmaybe.
So there's quite a variety anda good chunk of them you might
call Victorian.
But even the Victorians had alot of different colonial
revival, Gothic revival, Tudorrevival.
They were hearkening back toold, yeah, so we're hearkening
back to old, yeah.
And then of course there'sCraftsman and Bungalow and
(24:07):
Foursquare that are newer styles.
And then there are also a listof resources, websites.
I've had to go in and changethe links on some of those,
because links change they do,and so these may not be all
precisely accurate.
(24:27):
But if you just go in andGoogle historic home styles,
historic home style paint colors, there's a New England homes
website, there's one from LongBeach, California, there's one
from Ipswich, Massachusetts,Even paint companies Sherwin
Williams, Valspar, BenjaminMoore they will have historic
(24:51):
paint colors.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Which is nice.
It is Because it can be sooverwhelming to have a ton of
paint anyways.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
So when it's already narrowed down for you it helps
and they typically will narrowthem down, like to a craftsman
or a mid-century, modern or aparticular Victorian eras.
That help Because, for example,greek revival, which was one of
the earlier Victorian styles Ithink there are a few of those
in Moscow those homes often arewhite and should stay white,
(25:21):
because they were hearkeningback to Grecian temples that
were marble or limestone orwhatever, and so they weren't
the riotous color that you findwith some later Queen Anne and
other Victorian styles, and evencraftsmen have multiple colors,
but more muted nature, darkercolors.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
No, it's such a fascinating thing to start
digging into.
It is for me.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
And so, and for us on the we on the commission, we
want to help encourage people toeven if it's not their thing,
if they're going to buy ahistoric home and or a home in
an area of a certain age to tryto be respectful of that Cause
in the long run it helps themwith property value and it
(26:07):
certainly makes their neighborsthink more kindly of them.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And there are some choices back then that were not
probably the ones you have topick.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
That's right.
That's right.
If there are extreme thingsabout your home, you can do
things to tone those down withpaint.
Yes, for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So can you give us a couple examples of orchid
winners?
I know the house we had listedover on A Street was the
Spotswood home and they had wonone for that porch addition.
They did that faced was itfacing A or was it facing well,
regardless, the one porch that'son the house?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
They won an Orchid Award, yes, so what are some
other examples in the recentyears?
Oh, let's see if I can evenremember.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
That's not my strong suit.
There was one over on C Street,I think C and Cherry.
That was sort of a I guess youwould call it a bungalow and
it's on our flyer but it lookslike one that could be in the
Fort Russell district.
But it just is a reminder thatwhen you go west of Main Street
(27:16):
there are neighborhoods therethat have some older craftsmen,
in this case bungalow stylehomes, and it has what's called
a hip roof.
The dormers, instead of beingpointed in the front, they bend
down and it's verycharacteristic.
That family added an extension,an addition, a little to the
(27:37):
back to the west, and it wasreally just a long, two-story
rectangular box which was aneasy addition to build.
But then they echoed the hiproof design, so it looks like
the rest of the home and wassited similarly, painted,
similarly roofed all the same.
(27:58):
So that was an example that wevery much appreciated, being
outside the Fort Russell area,but also thoughtfully done.
You know, not just a box stuckon but a relatively cheap shape
to build, but with the properwindows and the hip roof.
(28:23):
Again, let's see what others.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
It's some years ago but my in-laws when they owned
the Butterfield House on PolkStreet, they got an Orchid Award
for their remodel as well.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yes, Now did they add to the roof in the back.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
They did.
They added some windows, a rowof windows, it was dormers, that
they bumped it out and reallymade that upstairs a very usable
space.
Yes, yes, but then it didn'tchange the look from the front
Right and all of it is just verywell done.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yes, and even from the back.
Adding that long dormer to theback of a long roof, like that
is really not uncommon.
That was something that peopledid in colonial times or and and
since then, or like if you hada home oh, you know they did
this in England.
If you had a home that was arectangle, it was very frequent
(29:19):
that they would extend it whenthey had more money and needed
more room, into a T shape withan addition in the back, or an H
shape with two wings on theside, and it could just keep
growing and growing Without itlooking weird Right.
It didn't impede the front ofthe home and its look from the
(29:41):
curb, and that one is a goodexample.
My home won one in 2019.
And the biggest thing I did tothe outside, I would say, was,
like I said, it's a Queen Annecottage style.
Over the years, the porch hadbeen removed.
And so it was just cement stepswith the wrought iron handrails
(30:03):
going up to the front door.
And when I first saw it I likedthe home.
It had been sited with shinglesso it looked a little more like
a lake cabin or something.
But I really liked it.
But just thinking about it,looking at it, I did some
research, realized it was aQueen Anne Cottage style home
and it really should have aporch.
(30:23):
And that was so nice because Iremember looking at it and
thinking it looked like it wasmissing teeth or something and I
didn't know why.
And then when I finally lookedit up and saw, oh, that's why
there's no porch anymore.
And then also because we had tochange that and the siding was
old.
The shingle siding wasn'treally original to it, it would
(30:47):
have been more clapboard withpossibly the little shingles up
in the dormer, and so that'swhat I went with when we had to
recite it.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
And with your color choices too.
I'm assuming you dug in.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yes, I did.
The gold on the main part ofthe home is called Gilded Age
because it's from the late 80s,early 90s colors.
And then I'm not sure that theaqua blue that I picked is
particularly historical.
I think theirs were probablyeither brighter, deeper blues or
maybe darker blues.
(31:20):
It's just one that I reallylike, and I knew that if the
fellow down the road could havelime green then I was going to
try to have aqua blue.
Yeah, so I think again, you gowith what is as close to
historical as you can, but I didtake some liberties there.
(31:41):
I wish now, when I replaced thewindows, that I would have put
in ones that the interior trimof the windows would have been
darker, because that wastypically in those Victorian
homes.
The sashes in the windows werethe dark highlights, and then
the other colors were appliedelsewhere, and black or dark
blue probably would have beenmore appropriate for my home.
(32:03):
I didn't know that at the time.
It's a learning process and wejust made this flyer and it's on
the Historic Preservationwebsite.
There's an area that'sresources down on the right side
and I think it's called Welcometo Moscow.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Okay, well, and we can put links in the notes too
for the podcast.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Okay, good, so it is a learning process, but we just
want to encourage people to takea little time, do a little
research, give a little thoughtbefore you just buy the huge
truckload of siding because it'scheap and put it on everything
(32:47):
you do.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Or two remnants and use both of them.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yes, yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Well, cynthia, thank you so much.
You're so welcome Winding downhere.
Is there any last thoughts thatyou have?
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Let me just double check.
I don't think so.
I think that's mostly just.
Oh.
The Historic PreservationCommission right now is working
on a sign about FriendshipSquare.
We have done the signs that areon the old post office which is
(33:23):
now City Hall, the one on there, our Carnegie Library.
We are working on helping thisget a national historic
preservation designation forthat.
I call it the swoopy roofbuilding.
Oh, yes, on A Street, and Mainthe water building, but it was
the first savings and loan thatwas built in Moscow.
(33:45):
I remember seeing it in 63 whenI was here and it first went up
and just thinking, what is that?
Yes, and now I really like it.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Well, it's very iconic it is, and as a kid it
was one of the ones you're likeman that'd be so fun to slide
down Exactly, or sled down inthe window, yes, or skateboard.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
What a skateboard thing, exactly, you know.
So that has been recognizedstatewide, but they're working
on getting it recognizednationally.
Wow, the man who designed itdid banks all over California.
I think there's another one insouthern Idaho these mid-century
Interesting yes, thesemid-century yes, so that we are
there.
There's an effort by somestudents and classes and
(34:32):
architecture and historian folksup at the U of I to get a
historic district up there too.
At the U of I.
Yes, with the collegiate Gothicbuildings that are the center of
the campus, so a lot is goingon.
Yeah, if you're at allinterested, of the campus, so a
lot is going on.
If you're at all interested, Ijust encourage you to look at
the County Historic Society hasarchives.
There are archived Moscowphotos at the U of I archives.
(34:55):
There's an OTT collection.
That's fabulous.
The county has a wonderfulhistoric preservation commission
that is working on things inDerry Beauville, troy.
Troy has a strong historicpreservation group.
So if you're interested, it'sactive and going.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
That's fun.
Oh, it's fun to learn about it.
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Oh, thank you.
Encourage people this way.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
We would rather encourage them and educate than
have restrictions.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yes, put in place, I think many of us would, most of
us would yes.
So yeah, well, cynthia, thankyou.
Thank you, catherine.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Thanks for joining us .
Like, share, subscribe.
We'll see you next week.
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