Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) Building

One of Weiser’s historic downtown buildings has been sold to a partnership that consists of two California residents who plans to renovate it and lease space.

The two-story circa 1900 building on the corner of State Street and Idaho Street has seen many uses in its long life, including the former meeting place of the International Order of Oddfellows.

The stained glass window on the second floor of the building and the IOOF inscription on the brick facade are reminders that it was once the Oddfellows Hall.

Partners Seth Addison and Tim Nijhof recently bought the property, which is actually two buildings with an interior stairway that separates them, from owners and longtime Weiser residents Clarence and Anna Stark.

The Starks had done business with Addison when they owned Washington County Title and he bought a rental in Weiser. They discussed the sale of the Oddfellows Building and negotiated a sale price that both parties agreed on and closed the deal.

Nijhof said they have hired a local contractor to start work on reinforcing a back wall in the building and redoing some of the exterior brickwork. The contractor also will tackle a portion of the back roof, which has 20 layers piled up over the years.

The new owners are working to get blueprints made for the 15,000 square-foot building, which will take a couple of months. There is no set timeline for the renovations to be completed, Nijhof said, and they will do the work incrementally. He plans to move to Weiser in the near future from Southern California and help in the renovations. “There is a lot of stuff that has to be done,” he said. “It will happen in stages.”

Nijhof said they are still looking at what the final interior plan will look like. The building has storefronts on both State Street and Idaho Street. The building potentially could have five retail spaces on the ground floor, along with two apartments upstairs. The apartments were occupied many years ago, and Nijhof said they plan to fix them up and rent them out.

The Starks bought the portion of the building with the storefront and warehouse in the late 1980s and purchased the rest of the property in 1999, including the Oddfellows Hall upstairs.

The Weiser Oddfellows merged with the Payette chapter and discontinued meetings in Weiser. The former hall upstairs is basically empty with two big rooms and a lot of square footage, Stark said.

Stark said he’s glad to see someone with lots of energy and renovation plans taking ownership of the building. “I would like to see it renovated and put into functional use as retail or whatever,” he said.

The Starks operated a retail store on the ground floor for 21 years that sold office supplies, gifts and other items. Currently, there is a beauty salon in the space. They also owned a title business for many years in Weiser.

Before the Starks owned it, there was a candy and gift store called the Metropole on the ground floor where the beauty salon is today.

In the 1970s, the Weiser News Company occupied the space, retailing cards, gifts, newspaper, tobacco and other stuff.

The block was a happening place in downtown Weiser back in the day. Next to the Oddfellows Building on the south side, there was the Tally Ho, the Weiser Club and a pawn shop located where the Vendome parking lot is today.

From Weiser Signal-American – Wed, 9/11/2019