Log cabin found inside walls of Boise home

04:07 PM MDT on Friday, October 14, 2005

Alyson Oüten
Idaho's NewsChannel 7

BOISE – An unusual discovery in Boise has piqued the interest of construction workers, history buffs and casual observers.

Gary Salzman-KTVB

An old log cabin was discovered during a demolition project at this home on Crescent Rim Drive in Boise.

An old log cabin was found recently within the brick walls of a Boise home. If only those walls could talk.

It is one of the best views in Boise. It is prime real estate, but that's not why people are slowing down along Crescent Rim Drive.

While clearing the way for a new home, demolition crews uncovered a secret structure.

"When I first saw it I thought, now what in the world is that?" said Don Martin, neighbor.

Don Martin and his dog Sophie have walked by this house every day for years, never knowing there was a home within this home.

"I was really surprised to see it when the first time I walked by and saw the bricks had been taken away and low and behold there it was," said Martin.

"From the inside you could tell there was an old log cabin in one portion of the house, from the outside you never would have known, and so that's why you're getting a lot of surprise from looky-loos driving by that saw the cabin," said Justin Jayo, Jayo Construction.

"That is fantastic," said Don Olson.

Don and Sarah Olson drove from Eagle to see it for themselves.

The age of the cabin is a bit of a guessing game. Those on the job site estimate it was constructed in the 1930s, but experts say it could have been built as late as the 1950s.

This week, the Idaho Historical Society took a look at this buried treasure and determined it wasn't that much of a treasure. They say the original structure was so altered over the years, it would not be considered a historical building. But to many it still has value. The man demolishing the house says he's salvaging logs to reconstruct the cabin in McCall.

And those building the new house here say pieces of the past may indeed be part of the future.

"These gable beams that you see in here that were in the family room we're going to possibly put them into a game room in the house, which would be kind of neat," said Jayo.

"So the history will go on for another generation?" asked NewsChannel 7.

"It will go on until they tear this down some day, the new one," said Jayo.

Replacing the old brick house and its internal cabin will be a large $2.5 million Tuscan-style home.