Program Director Gaby Thomason here to celebrate our incredible Board Members at Preservation Idaho with some Q&As for 2 weeks of Idaho Gives!
Our team works tirelessly to save and protect Idaho’s historic and cultural heritage by preserving historic buildings throughout the state, advocating at the state and local levels, creating programs to highlight Idaho history, and opening lines of communications in every community. We at Preservation Idaho are proud to have each of them on our team and deeply appreciate the volunteer hours and energy they put in to protect and honor our state’s history.
You can support Preservation Idaho’s great education programs by donating to Idaho Gives.
Today’s spotlight is on our barn and Finnish log construction expert extraordinaire, Board Treasurer Frank Eld!
Frank was one of the creators of Preservation Idaho’s Idaho Heritage Barns Register. He has helped to guarantee the protection of multiple historic buildings across the state and has completed many of his own restoration projects, most notably the historic barn and general store in Roseberry, ID and his current home, the historic Jones house that was moved from Boise’s Central Addition in 2017.
Preservation Idaho (PI): What is your background in history and preservation?
Frank Eld (FE): I began my History/Preservation career when I was a Junior in High School at McCall-Donnely School District in McCall. I assisted several others in establishing a temporary museum in the Scout Hall (now Donnelly City Hall) during the Idaho Territorial Centennial in 1963. It was during this summer that the idea of establishing a permanent museum for Valley County was hatched as Margaret Klient and I stood on the steps one day and decided a permanent home was necessary to preserve the history and artifacts which had been displayed during the celebration. We even decided it should be in Roseberry, a neutral location, and not associated with any of the three cities of Donnelly, McCall, and Cascade.
Roseberry General Store
Roseberry Barn
The Historic Jones House
Five years later, when I graduated from Columbia in 1969, I bought the old Roseberry General Store building and started collecting items for preservation. In 1973, we formed the Long Valley Preservation Society, a non-profit historical society. The following year, I spearheaded a project to buy and move the original Methodist-Episcopal Church building, built in 1904 in Roseberry and moved to Donnelly in 1929. This became the first official museum in the old townsite of Roseberry. We later moved the old city hall from McCall to become the current official Valley County Museum. Roseberry had been the largest town in the Valley in 1910 but was destroyed when Donnelly was built one mile to the west in 1914 when the Railroad arrived in the County.
For the next twenty years, I taught school back east and traveled back to Idaho in the summers to work on the museum. During the school year, I headed a restoration of the pre-Revolutionary War Dewees Tavern building (Trappe H S museum) in Trappe, PA for the US Bicentennial Celebration in 1976. In the 1980s, I moved back to Idaho and lived in Boise, where I restored an 1898 Tourtellotte/Hummel house on Hayes and spent weekends in Roseberry. I worked on Roseberry for 46 years (always as a volunteer), eventually moving there in the 1990s and then back to Boise to restore the Jones house four years ago. In my years working on Roseberry, we moved over 20 buildings from various parts of Valley County to preserve them from destruction. We moved and restored several Finnish log structures and a Finnish barn which is now used all summer for weddings and the Roseberry Music Festival.
Presently, I am involved with the Dry Creek Historical society working on the preservation of the c. 1865 horse barn.
PI: What inspired you to join Preservation Idaho?
FE: I joined Preservation Idaho to represent Central Idaho when I lived in Roseberry and haven't been able to get away since.
PI: What is your favorite preservation project you’ve been part of?
FE: All of them. I am passionate about old buildings.
PI: What do you wish people knew about historic preservation?
FE: You can read about history and see movies about it, but if you want to experience it, you must visit a preserved historic building or site.
PI: How else are you involved in your local community?
FE: I was a County Commissioner in Valley County for two terms. I am presently on the Ada County Historic Preservation Council. I am on the committee to establish the Finnish Classroom at the U of Pittsburgh. I disassembled a section of a Finnish log cabin, moved it to the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation visitors' center in Wilmington, DE, and consulted on the New Sweden/Finnish exhibit. I am also on the board of the New Sweden Farmstead and have been involved in its move from NJ to PA. I was the Lecture of the Year for the Finlandia Foundation 2018-19 and toured the Country presenting lectures on Finnish log Construction.
In addition to these activities, I am working on my Masters in Historical Research at Boise State U. and am working on my second book. [See Frank’s first book, Finnish Log Construction - The Art.]
And in my spare time, I sit around eating Bon Bons.
PI: What’s a fun fact about you?
FE: I know who John Morton is. Do you? I have a 1773 paper money currency which he signed. (He was a Finn who signed the Declaration of Independence for the colony of PA.) His great grandfather immigrated to the New Sweden Colony in 1654.
Keep an eye out for more Upcoming Preservation Idaho Board Member Spotlights!
Preservation Idaho has an all-volunteer working board and your support this Idaho Gives will be used to build and promote our two most important educational programs, The Preservation Idaho Time Machine and the Idaho Architecture Project. Visit our page at Idaho Gives to learn more and donate today!