Roosevelt School preservation honored at Museum of North Idaho event

Preservation took center stage at the Museum of North Idaho, where about 50 people gathered to honor Don Pischner and Steve and Marie Widmyer with Heart of History awards, but the real story was the fight over who gets to shape Coeur d’Alene’s identity as the city grows. Mayor Dan Gookin surprised Pischner with the honor and used the moment to credit the broader public campaign that kept Roosevelt School from being demolished.

The Roosevelt School building, constructed in 1905, served generations of Coeur d’Alene students until 1971 and was later converted into the Roosevelt Inn about 30 years ago. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but in 2025 it faced a redevelopment plan that would have removed the structure. Thousands of people signed an online petition to save it, turning a single building into a community-wide preservation fight.

Steve Widmyer, who attended Roosevelt School as a student starting in 1966 in grades one through four, and Marie Widmyer finalized their purchase of the 1905 building in 2025 after the deal had sat in escrow for about a year. The purchase price was not disclosed. The Roosevelt Inn property was valued at $2.2 million by the Kootenai County Assessor’s Office last year, underscoring the value now attached to a building that once seemed headed for the wrecking ball.

Pischner, who serves as District 1 trustee for the Idaho State Historical Society and formerly served on the museum board, said he did not see himself as a historian so much as a reporter of what he had seen and heard. That modest view fit an evening that treated preservation less as celebrity recognition than as a local habit, built by residents, board members and elected officials willing to intervene when a landmark is at risk.

The Widmyers were also recognized for preserving other historic properties, including the Hamilton House in Coeur d’Alene and an old school in Washington state. The Hamilton House received the first Heart of History award in 2023, and the Northern Pacific Railway Depot received the second in 2024, making this year’s recognition the third in the series.

The Museum of North Idaho, founded in 1968, says its mission is to preserve and illuminate the region’s past. The city’s Historic Preservation Commission says its work is meant to promote the educational, cultural, economic and general welfare of the public through the identification and designation of historic buildings, sites, districts and structures, a mandate that now feels increasingly urgent as development pressure builds across Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County.