Post Falls Seeks Tenants for Historic Chapin Building as Museum Volunteers Worry

The Chapin Building has been a drug store, a laundromat, a police station, and for the past 17 years, the home of the Post Falls Museum. Now the city wants to know what it should be next.

Post Falls opened a formal request for proposals inviting individuals, businesses, and organizations to submit lease concepts for the historic structure on the City Hall campus. The city said it is seeking proposals that "provide meaningful community value while preserving the integrity and historic character of the structure," and that it will consider uses compatible with the current museum function or alternative concepts that enhance public benefit. What it cannot do, city leaders acknowledged at a February city council meeting, is keep the status quo: the building needs repairs for water leaks and mold, and the city said it does not have enough funding to cover the costs.

For volunteers with the Post Falls Historical Society, that announcement landed hard. Kris King, a Historical Society member, said the group has poured years and thousands of dollars into the space, routinely handling maintenance in exchange for rent forgiveness.

"This is a project of love for us," King said. "It's a project for us to bring our city center alive."

King added: "We put a lot of money to start this building. We feel ownership to it."

That sense of ownership runs up against a legal reality. The Historical Society holds only a "license to use" agreement with the city, meaning it can be removed at any time. Brown, a Historical Society affiliate, described the arrangement as something that has "always been 'a little touchy.'" The society moved into the Chapin Building in 2008 after the public, during a city comprehensive plan process, directed it there following the departure of the parks and recreation department.

Weeks after the city opened the proposal period, the Historical Society held an open house that drew dozens of visitors. Attendees paused over hand-carved canoes, old logging equipment, and military memorabilia dating to the Civil War. Volunteer staffers greeted many by name. Longtime visitor Liz Boutin put it simply: "This building is a part of Post Falls. It's got soul."

The building itself has plenty of it. Walter F. Chapin, a local pharmacist, built it in 1923 on the original townsite plat laid out by town founder Frederick Post. It has cycled through uses as a gardening store, a school dance venue, and the local police station before the Historical Society took it over. The city's RFP describes it as "approximately 100 years old" and "an important part of Post Falls' civic heritage."

Volunteers have argued they offer something a commercial tenant cannot: a nonprofit structure that allows the society to apply for grants to help offset repair costs for the city. But they are also clear about what they fear most from the RFP process.

"The museum would end up being a secondary thing to any business that came in here, and that's just not what we're about," one Historical Society representative said.

Brown pointed to a framed charter hanging on the museum wall, bearing around 100 community signatures from 1988 calling for the creation of the Historical Society. "We're still standing because we do walk in the footsteps of the past," Brown said. "Those pioneer efforts in even having a museum are in great part because of these folks saying, 'yes, let's do it.'"

No proposals have been publicly announced and no decisions have been made. The city can be reached at 408 North Spokane Street in Post Falls or by phone at 208-773-3511 for those interested in submitting a proposal or requesting the full RFP.