The Power Company Buys Up Washington Avenue
The Northern Idaho Montana Power Co. assembles frontage at Pine, First and Washington, plans a fireproof substation, and pulls its lines off the main street.
The Northern Idaho Montana Power Co. is acquiring considerable frontage of business property on Washington Avenue. They have bought from Wm. Mitchell, of Scotia, the corner on Pine Street, also a fifty-foot lot south of the Elsasser building. At the corner of First and Washington they have acquired the 150 feet, two lots, from the Kelly estate. On one of these properties they will erect their sub-station and office, the building to be of fireproof construction and one that will be an ornament to the town.
The company will remove all of their lines off Washington Avenue, between Pine and Fourth streets, and place them in the alley west of Washington. They are also extending their lines in various portions of town. A gang of workmen was sent to Sandpoint last week to begin work on the power transmission line from that place to Newport.
“the building to be of fireproof construction and one that will be an ornament to the town.”
Utility consolidation and main-street infrastructure are not new: a private power company bought choice corners and promised a fireproof showpiece while moving lines out of sight. Newport's current debates over utility corridors, downtown investment and who controls the grid echo that 1909 land rush.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.