Idanha Hotel

The Idanha Hotel was built to give Boise a hotel worthy of the railroad-era traffic arriving on the stub line from Nampa. Construction began in 1900 and the doors opened on New Year's Day 1901. Architect William S. Campbell designed the building after touring modern hotels between Boise and New York, and the resulting six-story red brick structure with sandstone basement, mansard roof, and round corner turrets in the French-chateau style cost $125,000 - the most expensive building in Boise at the time.

The Idanha quickly became the social and political center of the city. Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, William Jennings Bryan, Polly Bemis, and Clarence Darrow all stayed at the hotel. The building was a working hub during the 1907 trial of Western Federation of Miners leader Big Bill Haywood, who was prosecuted in Boise for the assassination of former governor Frank Steunenberg. During Prohibition the building housed a hidden speakeasy with a concealed system for storing and delivering alcohol, a detail noted by LocalWiki Boise's historical entry on the hotel.

The hotel later hosted Roger Miller during the writing of one of his compositions and served as the launchpad for Gene Harris's lounge act career. The hotel operation wound down through the mid-twentieth century, and in the 1970s the upper floors were converted into apartments. Today the ground floor houses Bombay Grill and Guru Donuts, with 10th Street Station Bar and Mullet Proof Hair Co. occupying the basement.

The Idanha was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 9, 1974. The building's sandstone basement is increasingly rare in downtown Boise as more recent construction has shifted to concrete foundations.