Southern Idaho Timber Protective Association Statehouse
The residence faces north, toward Payette Lake. It is set back from Highway 55 and is fronted by a terraced lawn and several large spruce trees. The roof is sidegabled with a steep pitch. A substantial shed-roof dormer, sided with shingles, is centered on the north facade. The residence is one and a half stories and has a full basement. The dovetail notching is more complex than that of the garage and the pumphouse, both of which have round, or saddle notches. An unusual feature of the building is that the ends of the inside wall, which separates the enclosed porch from the office and living room, have been squared off and have been hewn flush with the exterior wall. The logs of this building were scribed, meaning that a groove was carved in the bottom of each log so that the log placed above it would fit snugly. This technique provides the Statehouse with a higher degree of refinement than of SITPA’s buildings, although it still retains a rustic appearance.
The primary entrance is located in the center of the north facade and consists of a single, multi-pane door. Concrete steps with round log railings lead up to the entrance; above is a front gabled roof with cross bracing and brackets. The entrance on the south elevation is a single door with a small concrete porch and round log railings. The consistent use of six-over-six, double-hung sash windows give this building much of its pleasing, rustic charm. Windows of this pattern illuminate the enclosed porch that spans the front of the building, and are also located on the first and second floors of the other elevations. The shed-roof dormer has two sets of triple-banked, one-over-one, double-hung windows. Toward the back of the structure on the first story of the east facade and in the center of the first story of the south facade are smaller, squat versions of this pattern.
To the right of the entrance on the south facade is a four-over-four, double-hung sash, narrow window. The double-banked windows in the east gable end have a fixed sash with nine lights. Small, horizontal awning windows can be seen at the basement level. Two interior chimneys, both made of brick with metal flashing and concrete coping, are visible. One is located on the north slope of the roof and the other is on the south. The living room is on the first floor directly behind the porch; it is flanked by the dining room to the left and on the right by the office. Both the living room and the office have fireplaces. The dining room leads to the kitchen. South of the office is a bedroom and the stairs are located in the hall behind the living room. Four bedrooms are located on the second floor, one at each corner. The basement includes the laundry and the furnace, and rooms for wood and fruit storage.
Nothing in the residence was painted. Instead, all the walls were varnished. The two Finnish craftsmen who built the house, John Heikkila and Gust Lapinoja, used fir for the flooring except in the living room, dining room and front porch. The only wood that was imported from outside the state, oak, was used in these rooms. Care taken to insure that nothing would obscure or divert attention from the natural was beauty of the wood, this effort: An article in a 194A issue of the National Geographic described
“The only wall decorations are maps framed in unstained wood, of which also are made ornaments such as flower vases, candlesticks, dresser trays, and boxes for cigarettes, tobacco, and matches. Even curtain rods and rings are all of natural Idaho wood, as is all the furniture. Dressers and beds built like ship berths, with chests of drawers underneath them to hold things, are ponderous.”
The Statehouse is architecturally significant because it represents Finnish construction techniques. These techniques include the use of scribed logs, fulldovetail notches and log partitions framed into outside walls in a way that matches the building’s corners. Although Finnish construction is also usually characterized by hewn logs, this is not a feature of the Statehouse. Idaho’s Finnish settlers moved from Pendleton, Oregon to the Long Valley in the late 1890’s, and farmed the area on the southeast side of the valley. Finns from other parts of the country soon joined them.
Many of these settlers were from Wyoming mining towns, and a large influx to Idaho occurred after a disastrous explosion in Hanna, Wyoming, in 1903. Ninety-six of the 269 miners who were killed were Finnish, and their countrymen in surrounding towns were motivated to seek a less dangerous occupation. Local Finnish craftsmen. Gust Lapinoja and John Helkkila, cut and shaped the logs for the house and the woodwork. Although simple round notches and chinking were employed in the construction of the garage and the pump house, the two Finns used the more complicated building method of scribed logs and dovetail notches for the Statehouse.
The log buildings are also architecturally significant as examples of the Rustic style. This style received a major impetus through the efforts of both the National Park Service and railroad companies — the former wanted the architecture in the parks to harmonize with the environment, and the latter supported these efforts because the parks would be an inducement for travel. It reached its zenith during the 1920s and 1930s, and spread throughout the United States during the work relief programs of the Depression.
Characteristics of the Rustic style included the use of indigenous building materials, the lack of applied ornament, unobtrusive and harmonious design and the compatibility of massing, texture, color and scale with the environment. Typical of Rustic Style structures, SITPA’s buildings represent a selfconscious attempt to evoke a simple, utilitarian approach to construction, so that although visitors were in a comfortable buildings, they sensed that the great outdoors was just beyond. Through the use of this style, SITPA’s buildings were successful in expressing the organization’s interests.
Text from the National Register of Historic Places Nomination form