BOISE -- It is a staple in Boise's North End, adding to the unique character that makes up Boise's history.
The city's first methodist church, Immanuel Methodist Episcopal Church, turned deteriorated apartments and meth house, is transforming into a center for the arts.
If you pass by the historic turn-of-the century building, you'll notice it's being reinvigorated and preserved for an organization called TrICA, Treasure Valley Institute for Children's Arts.
The nonprofit has come a long way since buying this building a little over a decade ago. They have been cleaning up, gutting and revitalizing this old church for years because, as you can imagine, there's a lot of work to do. When it opens, TrICA wants it to be a place of pure inspiration.
"This area is the soaring space that will be visually kind of a mixture between a cathedral and a factory," TrICA founder and CEO Jon Swarthout said as he gave KTVB a tour of the building. "It's usable space."
The space is characterized right now by wooden beams, exposed insulation, dust, theater seats, theater lights and building material.
"We'll have it be very open and multi-use," Swarthout said.
A building once listed as one of the most endangered and threatened historic sites in Idaho is on its way to becoming the TrICA Center for Learning and the Arts.
"This is the lower level, which is an amazing space," Swarthout told KTVB as we walked to the basement, "The concept down here is that we will have a visual arts work area where children can learn different visual arts, painting ceramics, as well as culinary arts, musical arts."
Slowly but surely, the vision of the TrICA is coming to fruition.
"The sandstone was actually falling off the building. What just finished last week was the repair of all the sandstone around the building. Every single stone had to be removed," Swarthout said. "All entrances and exits were shored up and brought up to code."
"We've put a new roof on it, we've replaced the windows, we've now done all the sandstone, we've structurally stabilized the building," Swarthout added.
He says when he came across this building 11 years ago, it was mysterious, but he felt like it called out to him.
"It had a big roof that sloped down and shingles were falling off and there were boards over the windows and a big fence around it and it was sort of this haunted castle looking place. And it was obvious that it could be something really wonderful," Swarthout said. "I like that it was once a place of inspiration and enlightenment had a dark history, became a meth house and was about to fall down."
Swarthout says saving the space and turning it into a place of inspiration once again by using art as the core curriculum was just what TrICA needed.
He and his crews are turning the early 1900's historically beautiful - yet decrepit - church into a space where kids' minds and imaginations can take flight, where children and their families are exposed to all types of visual and performing arts.
"The arts have a very unique and special and profound power to inspire children to a higher standard of excellence and deeper sense of expression and a belief in themselves that will pour over into every other aspect of their lives," Swarthout added.
For more than two decades, TrICA has brought the arts to kids from all walks of life and all socioeconomic status in schools, libraries, studios, churches across the Treasure Valley.
"It had always been my dream to have a home where we could have a theater and studio space and have classrooms and expand programs in an even richer way to inspire children," Swarthout told KTVB.
But to make that dream a reality, the nonprofit says they need the community's help. Thanks to generous people and local foundations, $4.5 million has been donated so far but construction costs will total $6.5 million.
"Every single penny has to be fundraised and donated by someone somewhere," Swarthout said. "This is a place for our community to honor and cherish and drive by and know what an amazing it is."
The organization's next steps are replacing all the boarded up windows, along with putting in stairwells and railings. Then they'll move on to the inside to make it usable. However, as mentioned, they need money to do that and say this is the most critical time because their goal is to open by the end of the year. You can donate to TrICA here.
TrICA was also selected by Fundsy as this year's beneficiary.