Facts:
The Staff House Museum located at 820 W. McKinley Avenue in Kellogg
was constructed in 1906 by the Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining
& Concentrating Company as the residence for Manager Stanley
A. Easton and his bride, Estelle Greenough.
Easton had become Manager for the Kellogg operations of the Bunker
Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Company in 1903.
The son of an Episcopalian Minister in Santa Cruz, California, he
graduated from the University of California at Berkley in 1894 with
a degree in Mining Engineering. For 55 years he rose through the
management of Idaho's largest mining enterprise to Company President
in 1933 and Chairman of the Board 1954-1958. Bunker Hill was Idaho's
largest industrial employer when Easton retired to live in Santa
Barbara, California, where he died in December of 1961. He was elected
to the Idaho Hall of Fame in 1999.
The two story Easton residence was initially constructed west of
the Bunker Hill Main Office at 912 W. McKinley. It was moved to
its present location in 1940 when space was required to construct
two new residences, one for J. B. (Barney) Haffiier, newly hired
as the Company's General Manager, and the other for Stanley McDougall,
Manager of Mines.
The Easton family, which included three daughters born in Kellogg,
moved to 1321 E. Lakeshore Drive in Coeur d'Alene in 1923. Their
Kellogg residence was then converted by the company to a residence
for single Bunker Hill staff members.
After the Staff House was moved to 820 W. McKinley in 1940, further
inside modifications were made to create nine bedrooms on the two
main floors, plus four baths. In addition, a full basement with
another bath was constructed as part of the foundation. This area
was to be used for company management meetings and social activities
such as wedding receptions and holiday parties.
When The Bunker Hill Company was closed down at the end of 1981,
following 94 years operating as one of the larger mining and smelting
complexes in the U.S., the Staff House structure sat idle, without
heat, until 1986. The heat, prior to closure of the Company, was
piped into the house from the Smelter.
The Bunker Limited Partnership, the current owners of the idle Bunker
Hill operations, were about to tear down the building when the newly
created Shoshone County Mining and Mining Museum, Inc., dispatched
Board Members Jim Miller, Sr., Doris Helsley and Ray Chapman to
see if the Staff House could be given to this group. Jack Kendrick,
President of the Partnership, agreed to give the museum group a
tentative agreement to use the building.
With a lot of hard work by Museum Board members, and other volunteers,
the Staff House Museum was able to open to the public in the summer
of 1986 with three rooms of exhibits. Kendrick, expressing satisfaction
with the progress that was being made to repair the building and
create a satisfactory museum, soon turned over title to the house
and property for $1.00 later that year.
Work continued from this time forward to repair the inside damage
to the building and restore it to an attractive tourist stop. Several
large donations were acquired to help install a furnace to provide
heat through the existing hot water radiator system. Also a new
roof was installed and the building painted. Additional exhibit
rooms were developed and within three years displays occupied a
dozen rooms on the two floors as well as in the basement. In 1988
a $500 grant was obtained from Inland Northwest Communities Foundation
to provide five concrete pads on the southwest side of the Museum
lot for installation of mining and smelting equipment too large
for inside display.
Next, in 1990, Bunker Limited Partnership gave the Museum the big
1899 Nordberg Air Compressor, located in a building about 400 yards
west of the Museum. To provide a foundation for this 73.5 ton compressor,
18 volunteers provided 606 hours of work to install this concrete
structure with about half the concrete also donated. Next, a crane
operator volunteered his time, but charged the Museum for his helper
and the use of his crane to disassemble and move the compressor.
The compressor was successfully moved in 1990 and then a landscaping
plan was prepared and donated by Architects West of Coeur d'Alene.
This entailed construction of a concrete walkway around the Compressor,
purchase and installation of 900 bricks with pockets for bronze
memorialized plaques.
At this writing, the Compressor area is landscaped and 899 engraved
bricks sold at $50 each to help finance the move and maintenance
of the Nordberg Air Compressor.
The Staff House Museum now houses a well stocked gift shop, 13 exhibit
rooms on the two main floors, a basement of exhibits featuring two
large, lighted, three dimension mine models, plus the five outside
pads, plus the 104 year old Nordberg Air Compressor.
The Museum is operated by a 20 member volunteer Board of Directors,
and is staffed by a paid hostess seven hours a day, seven days a
week, from Memorial Day Weekend through September. In addition,
special visits may be arranged outside the usual summer schedule.
|
