The C H Waymire Building located in Hyde Park in Boise (1521 13th Street) is another humble, everyday building from Hummel’s 125 Year history that continues to have a life 112 years after construction.

The Waymire block was finished in 1909 to house a grocery store with the owner’s apartment upstairs. Similar to the Rosedale IOOF Hall featured in a previous post, the substantial appearance is expressed in the use of concrete blocks formed to mimic natural sandstone blocks. “The blocks were furnished and laid up by the team of Shaffer, Hawk, and Clark, whose block factory at Thirteenth and Alturas streets was probably responsible for the several cast-stone houses built between 1905 and 1911 and included in the Harrison Boulevard Historic District. The company was presumably responsible as well for the row of one-story cast-stone storefronts which extends south along Thirteenth Street from the Waymire Building.

Clarence H. Waymire had the following listing after his name in the 1906-07 city directory: Wholesale and Retail Groceries, Grain, Flour and Feed, Bakery Goods, Millinery, Shoes, Cigars, and Barber Shop… Just about everything, in short, that a family in the North End of Boise might like to run to the corner to pick up, rather than go downtown. Waymire was listed in 1911 only as a “grocer,” but there is no reason to think he would have reduced his stock in his expanded quarters. These were first announced in 1906, but a building permit was not issued until 1909. The projected cost was $1,000 which seems low even for such a simple building. Some economy, however, must have been part of the attraction of cast stone.”

(Excerpt from Inventory Sheet for Group Nominations: Idaho State Historical Society, Boise, Idaho. Nomination: Tourtellotte and Hummel Architecture)