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My friend Amy Danziger Ross, a grad student in Idaho, recently found this amazing property in a very small town:
$75,000. GREAT HISTORIC BRICK BUILDING. STARTED OUT AS A BANK WITH A MASONIC LODGE LOCATED ON THE 2ND FLOOR. MAIN FLOOR IS SET UP AND HAS BEEN RUN AS THE ELK TAVERN FOR MANY YEARS. THERE IS AN APARTMENT IN THE BACK ON MAIN FLOOR. SECOND FLOOR HAS NOT BEEN USED FOR YEARS, MOSTLY ONE BIG ROOM WITH HIGH CEILING, FIR FLOORING, LOTS OF WINDOWS AND 2 FIREPLACES.
Let me get this straight: for $75k, she could have the entire building, complete with her own tavern on the main floor:
As Amy said:
“We found what could maybe be our dream house — an old Masonic Lodge on the second floor, a bar and a grocery (and an apartment) on the first floor. We like the idea of making the second floor into a library. And it’s less than an hour out of Moscow, ID.There are some problems, though. The boy drove out there and says it’s not in great shape — would probably need like $100k worth of work, though he thinks it’s livable. It’s also kind of far from civilization, and people say the town is a little creepy.”
So, the town might be a little on the meth lab/zombie apocalypse side of things. But let’s picture the library on the second floor:
For Sale By Owner: A secluded hand-built house with a spring-fed pool. Will trade.
My friend Rachel spends a lot of time fantasizing about houses. And stalking houses. She sent me this week's Offbeat Real Estate dreamboat: an "artistic"... Read more
Or she could gut the whole thing and take over the downtown of this tiny town with some sort of bike collective/arts community/distillery!
Fantasy time: What would YOU do with this building?
I would.. start a mix of a second hand book store, literary/ writers’ cafe, bakery, slam poetry lab, book crossing zone and pet adoption center (hello, local humane society!) because reading a book with a cup of tea, a scone and a cat on your lap is _the_ best way to be.
Added benefits: no mice, free pets and good company.
Two words: warehouse rave.
Roller rink.
OMG AN UPSTAIRS ROLLER RINK! *swoon*
I would LOVE this kind of opportunity! (That kind of thing doesn’t happen much in Atlanta!) I would totally, totally turn it into a house. If their downpayment is significant, they can get a crazy low mortgage payment on such a low priced home. If it’s habitable, I think it would make an amazing home with tenant opportunities.
Check this out for inspiration: http://realestate.msn.com/us-post-office-becomes-first-class-home
Thank you for sharing that link!!
You’re very welcome!
wow! that old post office turned house is amazing!
No question- I would turn it into a small theatre! Complete with a post-show lounge! One can dream…
I would totally make it a mash-up business with all my fav things — bookstore, espresso shop, microbrew bar, and art shop and studio! The mention of a meth/creepie town does give me pause though… I’d probably check out that atmosphere and the level of public safety before making an offer.
I’ve been there (my husband grew up in Idaho). It is the closest I’ve been to Deliverance in real life. Danger!
What? No way.
The upper floors and one bottom floor would be my house. I would open the tavern as a soda shop (?) or as a bar and a bookstore on the lower floors.
frankly, i’m on board with bike cooperative/arts community/distillery.
although i am also kind of excited about the idea of reopening the tavern and grocery store. i’m thinking a farmer’s market/general store combo.
No doubt about it, I’d save an apartment upstairs, but have pottery studio/s and gallery on the ground floor!! I like the distillery idea too! :o) And restore as much as possible to it’s former beauty.
Hey now…Idaho towns can seem a bit weird but they’re not too bad!!!
So…where exactly is this?
I intentionally stripped out the identifying information because Amy and her partner are in the process of negotiating with the building owner, and I didn’t want to create any hassles for them! 🙂
That is awesome! It’d be great to turn it into something that would enhance the community. Maybe part of the downstairs into a restaurant space for some young innovative chef to take over, a neighborhood skill share center where locals or other folk can teach skills/arts to others. Nifty! Depending on how big it is you could live in it, but have LOTS of cats, like the Hemingway place in Key West!
Oh my God, I’d move in upstairs with all my friends and we’d run all sorts of businesses downstairs and live happily ever after.
A coffee shop on the corner, get the tavern up and running, a little art gallery in the middle.
BUILDING, I JUST WANT TO LOVE YOU.
These kinds of opportunities are so exciting! I kind of wish we had found something like this instead of our white-picket-fence house (but then again I think of all the work we put into THAT and just wilt thinking of gutting and revamping a place… so maybe not for us). If the town is bearable, I think it could be tons of fun. Make it a hot spot! Lift the town up! Draw more people from the surrounding areas! Take a risk and good luck! 🙂 (And come back in a year or so and tell us what you ended up doing!)
I’d restore the whole thing and use it to film an indie sitcom. A tavern, a library, a post office, a living room, and a great establishing shot – what other sets do you need?
Tough question to answer without knowing the needs of the community, however I’d like to submit Harvest Moon Brewing Company as an example of an awesome business in a tiny, rather bizarre, and certainly unexpected community. My husband and I stopped at a bar in Great Falls, MT on a roadtrip and tried some of their delicious brew…so of course we had to stop by the brewery in the tiny town of Belt. Never would have imagined such a cool brewery in such an obscure place. You can create a business that draws people while serving folks both in and outside of the community, and live there.
http://www.harvestmoonbrew.com/index.php?p=why-belt
House/art gallery/working artist studios. THAT would be amazing!
my thoughts exactly!
I think I would turn the bar into a coffee shop and make the upstairs my photography studio. This place is perfect! If only it weren’t in a creepy zombie town…
Yarn store!
Sandwich/soup cafe! (That is my retirement dream!) on one end, ground level. Thrifty second hand furniture store in the middle. Craft supply/studio on other end. Upstairs – local artists gallery that could be rented out for special occasions. OH! can’t forget the roof deck! With green house to grow yummy treats to use in my Sandwich shop!
Living quarters on the 2nd floor, 24-hour gym on the first floor. Once you get a bunch of muscle-heads regularly dropping in for their work-out, it’s kind of like your own personal security service and nobody’s gonna mess with the place.
I read the title and saw the picture of the building. I began equipping it in my head for a zombie apocalypse. I think I might have a problem.
Will someone please buy this and open the bar back up? My name is on a couple of the bras in that picture and it was such a bummer for us U of I students when it closed! The bar used to be the start of the traditional “Boville Run” where students get together and take a shot at each bar in a bunch of little towns on a highway loop…now we have to hang bras on a moose head and it’s not the same at all!
Oh, this is amazing.
Theatre on the first floor (with adjoining bar), living space upstairs!
If I had my way:
Downstairs: coffee shop/bakery run by two friends that converts into a bar at night run by my partner and one of said friends, and a bookstore/art gallery.
Upstairs: Super classy lingerie/sex toy shop that also offers burlesque/aerial pole classes. Complete with performance area.
And I’m sure that outside somewhere Viking would demand to have a garage for his auto mechanic business.
Oddly enough, we already had this idea, but no building.
If I had the capitol for the repairs and equipment, I’d totally start a bakery. 🙂