The Co-Op Block and J.N. Ireland Bank buildings are located in Malad City, the seat of Oneida County. Built in two phases, their exteriors are architecturally distinct while their floorplans are interconnected.
The older, Victorian portions of the structure were built in 1893 to house the Malad Cooperative, a communal institution supported by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and modeled on Salt Lake City’s Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI). Structures associated with the Mormon cooperative movement are rare in Idaho.
In 1907 the J.N. Ireland and Co. Bank built a new, classically detailed building at the corner of this important Malad City intersection. The resulting “flatiron” configuration provides a ground floor entrance to the bank flanked by Ionic columns. Founded in Malad in 1892, the Ireland Bank is the oldest state-chartered bank in Idaho.
The Co-Op Block and J.N. Ireland Bank building was listed in the @nationalregisternps in 1979.
View the National Register nomination here: https://history.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Co-op_Block_and_J.N._Ireland_Bank_79000804.pdf
Photos copyright: Idaho State Historic Preservation Office. Source: Idaho State Historic Preservation Office.