400 Block of S. Main St

Cydney CyrErin Bradfield

April 18, 2010

Main Street

4th Street

5th Street

Skattaboe Block

Shields Block

Holt Building

The Shields Block residing on the east side of Main St. is a longstanding building in the Moscow community. M.J. Shields arrived in Moscow in 1878 and began a hardware store on the north end of the block which was originally made out of wood. In 1889 he decided to construct a brick building in its place. Due to financial constraints Shields reconfigured the hardware store and created Shields Co. Ltd. By 1897 the company dealt strictly with wholesale products, building materials, and farm and mill machinery. The M.J. Shields Company continued to grow and employed 30-60 people with one of the highest payrolls in Moscow at the time. By 1904 the south end of the block was divided into the store, a grocery and J.N. Friedman’s harness shop.

After Shields’ death in 1909 several other hardware stores came to the block, including Ward’s Hardware that stayed in its location for over 90 years. Around 1910 Moscow Business College resided on the third floor, and later H.P. Eggan managed apartments on both the second and third floors. One of the most noteworthy residents of the Shields block was Nathaniel Williams Boston Store. Williamson expanded the store to cover the entire block and added a second floor to the south end called The Greater Boston. Williamson soon after moved his store into the McConnell-McGuire building and a new general store called the Golden Rule took its place. Golden Rule eventually became J.C Penny’s which remained there until 1979.

Today Shields block has rid itself of general stores and instead has a variety of services for health conscious Idahoans including an Athletic Club and an outdoor sports store called Hyperspud Sports.

Shields Block

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Shields Block 1936

This beautiful building was built by Taylor and Lauder, Moscow’s most creative mason contractors of the period. They operated their own kilns and built most of downtown Moscow and major building on the University of Idaho campus.

Today you can enjoy an amazing meal at a fancy restaurant called West of Paris but when the Skattaboe building was built in1893 by Kenneth Oliver Skattaboe it was used for two different stores.

Skattaboe was a prosperous farmer and one of the founders of an early Moscow bank. Their farm was south of the Troy highway but traveling into town during the winter was difficult so they moved their family to the second floor of the building so their children could attend school.

The first floor of the building was split up by two different stores. The south part of the floor was occupied by Kistler and Parker Grocery and the north part by the Chicago store. The Chicago store was later known as the Chicago Bargain House, then Creighton and McClelland Dry Goods Store, then Creighton and Hall or just Creighton’s. In 1897 the Creighton store was forced to move to a larger space and moved to the Smith-Dolson Building. The following tenants include; W.L. Shaw Department Store, the Gem City Hardware, a drug store, Jackle Jewlery from 1934-1955, and the Hutchinson Photo Studio from 1955-1966.

In 1925 the Telephone Company bought the Skattaboe building and added the addition extended west of the building. They used this addition for the telegraph office and telephone exchange. After a fire in 1966 in the telephone exchange, the company took over the entire ground floor. In 1978 they did an extensive renovation and added to its space by adding the Fonkalsrud building.

In the late 1920’s the adjoining Fonkalsrud building was built for a variety store, which it continued to be used as until the 1978 when the telephone company bought it.

Skattaboe Block

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Skattaboe/Holt 1948

Today this building is used as the New Saint Andrews College but when it was built in 1903 it was used as a meat market.

Charles B. Holt was a pioneer stockman and settled about 10 miles west of Moscow in Whitman County, Washington Territory in 1878. Before he moved to Moscow in 1884 and opened the Holt & Robinson meat market with a Mr. Robinson, he sold meat from a butcher wagon after learning the trade from his uncle.

After his two daughters were married in the 1890’s he took his sons-in-law, George Cushing and Chris A. Hagan, into the meat business. In 1909 they built a large brick meat packing plant and became the first plant in the state of Idaho to operate under Federal Inspection No. 811.

Since then this building has been used for other meat markets and grocery stores.

Holt Building

Holt Building mid-60’s

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