Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Bald Mountain cabins meet their demise

Another piece of local history vanishes


By REBECCA MEANY
Express Staff Writer

Workers use a backhoe to demolish the historic Bald Mountain Lodge cabins Friday afternoon to make way for a proposed four-star hotel, which is still in the initial stages of planning. Photo by Chris Pilaro

Heavy equipment descended on the Bald Mountain Lodge property on Main Street in Ketchum last week, making way for new development.

Remaining cabins from the 1929-era motel were razed to clear the valuable parcel of land for a proposed four-story, four-star hotel.

Staff at the Ski & Heritage Museum, adjacent to the site, are working on a new display highlighting the history of the Bald Mountain Lodge. Before the remaining cabins were torn down, a few items were salvaged for the exhibit.

"We got a sink with the original faucet, some paneling, two ornate radiators," Betty Murphy, of the Ketchum-Sun Valley Historical Society, said Friday. The Historical Society runs the museum.

Exterior lights from the hotel will be transferred to the museum's buildings.

Although plans for the proposed hotel are only in the beginning stages of the permitting process, Murphy said she looks forward to having new neighbors.

The Bald Mountain Hot Springs Motel was built in 1929 by Carl E. Brandt, an executive with J.C. Penney Co. who once managed a J.C. Penney store in Hailey.

Brandt commissioned the Boise-based architectural firm Tourtellotte and Hummel, whose architects designed the state Capitol building in Boise. The hotel's property included 31 log-cabin apartments and a 200,000-gallon concrete pool filled with hot water piped from an underground reservoir at Warm Springs.

Parts of the lodge were moved to Hagerman, in south-central Idaho, in late 2003.




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