Ketchum Landmark for SaleMarch 7, 2012 By Dan Gorham Leave a Comment (Edit)

In 2009 local historian Chris Millsap wrote an article for Sun Valley Magazine on “ Ketchum’s few remaining emblems of an original identity.” Millsap identified the three iconic brick buildings on Main Street built during the 1880’s mining era by the Lewis family. Windermere Real Estate recently listed one of those buildings for sale, the historic “Issac Lewis First National Bank building”, which was constructed in 1884. For the past 21 years, the building has housed Chapter One Books. The town’s bricks were fired at a kiln near Knob’s Peak (today’s Knob Hill), a landmark knoll on the northeast edge of town. In the early 1990’s the Chapter One building was seismically re-enforced. The building contains 1966 square feet and is air conditioned. The rear of the building was remodeled in 2010.  It is currently owned by Bob and Mary Hastings.  For more information on this listing, contact Dan Gorham at 208-622-2700.

We’ve re-printed an edited portion of Millsap’s article below for fellow history buffs to enjoy.

In the 1880s, as Ketchum’s economy gained traction under the wheels of  Horace Lewis’ brimming ore wagons, his father built the first of what would become the mining-era’s iconic brick buildings and became Ketchum’s first real estate mogul, a pioneer’s Donald Trump.

“I have virtually made the town, at least I have expended more money and labor for it than any ten other men of the country all put together,” he wrote in 1891.

In the spring of 1884, Isaac Lewis joined George Griffin to build the First National Bank of Idaho on South Main Street. The red brick building is today home to Chapter One Bookstore. That same year, Isaac Lewis picked a spot across the street for another effort, the Lewis & Lemon General Store. Forty years later, when Al Griffith retired as the area’s mining superintendent, he set up a more relaxed venture, Griffith Grocery, in the handsome brick building with three archway windows. After decades of mixed use and vacant stretches, until 2010, when after an extensive and award winning remodel, the Vorms’ Cornerstone Bar and Grill opened its doors to an enthusiastic welcome.

Lewis added his final landmark to Main Street in 1887. Two blocks north from the First National Bank, at the intersection with what is now Sun Valley Road, he built his largest project yet. Comstock and Clark, a dry goods provider, was Lewis’ first tenant there, but it was the Lane Mercantile, a supply headquarters for the Valley’s sizeable sheep ranching industry, that would leave its mark. The “Lane Merc” building is prime real estate—signified by the “Eat More Lamb” painted billboard—and until recently  housed a symbol of a different era: Starbucks Coffee.