HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
1907 Coeur d'Alene tavern building where former staff counted ghosts among the regulars
705 W River Ave, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The restaurant closed in 2022 and the building has sat empty. Exterior is viewable from the street in the Fort Grounds neighborhood near the old Fort Sherman site.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved sidewalks in a flat residential and commercial neighborhood
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1907 · Fort Grounds Neighborhood History · Early Coeur d'Alene Commercial Building · Fort Sherman Vicinity
The building at 705 River Avenue dates to 1907 and sits in the Fort Grounds neighborhood west of downtown Coeur d'Alene, named for Fort Sherman, the U.S. Army post established on Lake Coeur d'Alene in the 1870s. Over the decades the building served several commercial uses: a drug and confectioner's store in its early years, then Gray's Grocery. A tavern was added on the west side in 1959.
In later years the property operated as the Fort Ground Grill, a neighborhood bar and restaurant. The Coeur d'Alene Press covered the grill's history and its eventual closing; the restaurant shut its doors in 2022, and the building has been vacant since.
The Fort Sherman connection runs through the neighborhood's identity. The post operated from the 1870s until its closure in the 1900s, and a handful of its original buildings survive elsewhere in the area as part of the Museum of North Idaho's holdings. The Fort Ground Grill itself was not a fort structure but took its name from the surrounding Fort Grounds district.
Sources
Accounts from people who worked in the building cluster around two figures. Former employee Diane Beck described what staff called "The Closing Couple," a pair seen out of the corner of the eye near closing time, and "The Bowler," named for a recurring sound from the empty room above the restaurant.
The Bowler, by Beck's account, announced itself as a ball rolling across the floor overhead, sometimes ending with a small commotion. Staff joked about whether the roll had ended in a strike or a gutter based on whether more noise followed. The accounts were gathered in Coeur d'Alene Press coverage and a Museum of North Idaho piece on local ghost stories.
The reports describe atmosphere and sound more than dramatic events, and they come chiefly from staff recollections rather than a single documented incident. With the building closed since 2022, the lore is now attached to a vacant property in a neighborhood that carries a long memory of its frontier-era army post.
Notable Entities
View the 1907 building at 705 River Avenue, near the grounds of the old Fort Sherman army post west of downtown Coeur d'Alene. It operated for years as the Fort Ground Grill and, before that, as a tavern and grocery, until the restaurant closed in 2022. The building has been empty since.
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