1917 Idaho Hotel and Museum, Currently Closed
76 S Main St, Soda Springs, ID 83276
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Building closed to overnight stays as of late October 2024. Future operations uncertain. View exterior from Main Street.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved sidewalk along Main Street
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1917 · National Register of Historic Places · Early Commercial Architecture · Bear River Heritage Area
The Enders Building was commissioned in 1917 by William and Theodore Enders, two prominent businessmen in the Soda Springs area, at a then-substantial cost of $75,000. The structure was built in the Early Commercial style typical of small-town Idaho main streets in the early twentieth century. The hotel originally offered thirty rooms.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 and underwent a restoration in 2001 that returned period detail to the rooms and incorporated a small museum, coffee shop, and event space alongside the hotel and Geyser View Restaurant. Soda Springs sits in Caribou County in southeastern Idaho, at the intersection of the Bear River Heritage Area and the Oregon Trail corridor.
The Enders brothers' commercial complex remained an anchor of downtown Soda Springs for more than a century. The hotel rooms blended early-1900s furniture pulled from the building's own collection with limited modern amenities. Standard, Anniversary, and Honeymoon suite categories offered increasingly antique-furnished accommodations.
In November 2024, the Caribou County News reported that the Enders Hotel had closed at the end of October 2024 and that its future was uncertain. As of 2026, the building's commercial status remains in flux pending decisions about reopening or repurposing.
Sources
Reports collected by Idaho Haunted Houses, Ghosts of Idaho, and regional travel coverage describe a male apparition associated with the building. Different traditions in Soda Springs identify the figure variously as a man shot and killed in the building or a man who died from a fall down its stairs. A third version of the story involves a woman murdered on the property, although the visible figure consistently described by witnesses is male, which Idaho Haunted Houses notes makes the female-victim story the least likely.
Reported phenomena cluster in the upper hallways and the basement. Witnesses have described seeing a male figure walking the corridors, hearing footsteps overhead in unoccupied rooms, and experiencing a sense of being watched in the basement service areas. Staff and overnight guests have given matching accounts in interviews collected by paranormal-tourism writers.
The hotel did not market itself as a paranormal destination during its operating era; the lore surfaced in regional press, occasional investigation features, and word-of-mouth from staff. With the property closed since October 2024, the legends remain attached to a building that is currently inaccessible to overnight visitors.
Notable Entities
View the 1917 Early Commercial-style hotel and museum at 76 South Main Street. The hotel's doors closed at the end of October 2024 per Caribou County News, with the property's future uncertain. The exterior remains a centerpiece of the Soda Springs historic district.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Washington, MO
The Thias House at 304 Elm Street in Washington, Missouri was built in 1888 by Henry Thias as a three-story Victorian intended to be 'an ornament to the city.' The house is on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri. It has operated at various times as a restaurant and bed and breakfast, although some sources indicate those operations are no longer active.
Charles City, VA
Edgewood Plantation is an 1854 Gothic Revival mansion in Charles City County, Virginia, built by the Rowland brothers, millers from New Jersey. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, the property served as a Confederate lookout during the Civil War and has operated as a post office, restaurant, and bed-and-breakfast.
Eureka, CA
The Eureka Inn opened in 1922 as a four-story, 104-room Elizabethan Tudor Revival hotel covering a full city block of downtown Eureka. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in February 1982 and now operates as Eureka Inn, Trademark Collection by Wyndham.