Travelers still pull over where Highways 95 and 71 meet in the middle of Cambridge, take photos of the old Hunters Inn, and walk the grounds on their own tours. In September, The Record Reporter reported that this happens often. The building has been condemned twice. It has also sat dormant for at least ten years.
It is also the clearest answer Cambridge has given about what it wants to keep. Whether that answer turns into money depends on paperwork that most people driving through town never see.
Nineteen answers, and one building in most of them
The City of Cambridge is putting together its first Historic Preservation Plan, and the Cambridge Historic Preservation Commission is writing it. On the city's plan page, the commission calls the plan "a critical state requirement that unlocks access to vital grant funding for local preservation projects," and says resident feedback "tells grantors what matters most."
The community survey asked about downtown storefronts, residential architecture, rail and industrial heritage, and agricultural landscapes and barns. It also asked residents to rank priorities, including documenting properties and maintaining the Museum Building. Responses were due July 31, 2026, and the commission held a meeting at the Cambridge Museum on July 9.
One question asked residents to name a single place:
"identify any specific building, structure, streetscape, or landscape in our community that you believe is highly endangered and should be prioritized for conservation"
According to The Record Reporter, 11 of the 19 responses to that question named the Hunters Inn.
Nineteen responses is a small sample, but the agreement is striking. A town with a museum, a depot history and a whole downtown corridor picked one building by a wide margin.
Why that building, specifically
The Hunters Inn has been rescued once before, and that history is part of why residents keep pointing to it. Here is how The Record Reporter tells it:
- Late 1920s. H.O. and "Ma" Woods build the Woods Tourist Park and Service Station, with lodging, dining and auto service. It does well even before the north-south highway is fully built.
- Mid-1930s. Civilian Conservation Corps crews camp on West Pine, and the inn becomes their "home away from home." Its coffee shop and grill also draw locals.
- The middle decades. The business changes hands several times. Recent owners include Floyd and Jenny Gibbs and Ada and Carl Hansen.
- April 1993. Jack and Aria Croly take over a run-down two-story brick building that looks headed for demolition. Masons repair the brick facade. They add an antique gas pump, international flags, a British phone booth and a 1962 Chrysler airport limo, and the building is rewired throughout.
- The closure. After the Crolys leave, it is unclear who runs the inn, though relatives may have kept it open except in winter. A few years later the plumbing freezes and nobody notices until spring. The damage forces it to close for good, and it is later sold to an out-of-state owner.
The Record Reporter quoted Jack Croly from an interview after his first six months: "My interest is to make the community proud, and not deviate from the pleasant appearance of our main street."
The 1993 restoration was paid for privately and depended on one owner's vision. The closure that followed came down to frozen pipes in a building nobody was watching.
Sources disagree on the building's age. Washington County preservation commission minutes from July 2025 list the inn as built in 1917, while the newspaper's account starts with the Woods in the late 1920s. Either way, it is about a century old. The same minutes say the building had been approved for condemnation and was then repaired enough to pass inspection. The owner has since kept the grounds clear of vegetation and taken down the wooden fire escape stairs on the back, which The Record Reporter says has eased the pressure for now.
The plan is how the money gets in
Cambridge has been in Idaho's Certified Local Government program since 1987. The program brings together local government, the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service, and it offers technical help and small grants. According to Idaho SHPO's CLG page, those grants can pay for surveys, National Register nominations, preservation plans, education and some development work. Only the certified government itself can apply. Museums and nonprofits cannot.
So the city is the only door, and the plan is what the city brings to it. That is why one answer repeated 11 times carries weight. It tells grant reviewers, in a document the state asks for, which building Cambridge cares about most.
The plan was still in progress this spring. At the April 1, 2026 meeting of the Washington County and City of Weiser preservation commission, Cambridge's representative said a first draft was expected "within a couple weeks." The representative also said Cambridge had added new board members, including Brandie Lincoln and McKenzie Loveland. The plan is a separate document from Washington County's own 2022 preservation plan, which covers the county outside the Weiser and Cambridge city limits.
The bridges paid for the museum roof
Grants are one source of preservation money here. Replaced bridges have been another.
At its October 2025 meeting, the county preservation commission went through where the money from three bridges was going:
| Bridge | Total mitigation | Where it was directed |
|---|---|---|
| Cove Bridge | $60,000 | $30,000 Washington County preservation plan, $20,000 reconnaissance site surveys, $10,000 info sign for Cove Bridge |
| Dixie Creek Bridge | $80,000 | $60,000 new roof on the Cambridge Museum, $20,000 City of Weiser preservation plan |
| Unity Bridge | $105,000 | Banked in the ILIB Grant Plan |
Three-quarters of the Dixie Creek money, $60,000, was assigned to the roof of a Cambridge building, the town museum. That money was allocated in October 2025. The museum building also appears in the city survey's list of priorities, so the plan and the mitigation money point at the same place. Meanwhile the museum is rebuilding its staff. The April minutes say the town was "working to put together a new staff at the museum."
So far no comparable funding has been set aside for the Hunters Inn. Being written into the plan is the first step toward that.
Midvale is at the beginning of the same process
Down Highway 95 in Midvale, the work is just starting. At the January 2026 meeting, Midvale's representative said the town planned initial survey work to prepare for mitigation funding or a 2027 CLG grant. The places named for assessment were the Midvale Swimming Pool, the grain elevator and the water tower. The elevator had a new owner, and the representative planned to follow up in person.
The April minutes show how little is on record so far. The old Enterprise School building had no entry in ICRIS, Idaho's historic resource inventory, beyond a few photos. Its owner had added supports to keep the walls from sagging, and restoration was estimated at $70,000 to $80,000. A commissioner suggested the schoolhouse could be a candidate for mitigation funding, perhaps in next year's cycle.
Some of Midvale's history now survives only as a marker or a memory. The depot is gone. A kiosk stands where it was, with some information about the town. A commissioner described it as one story, white, with a loading dock, "very classical in design," built around 1899 to 1901 and similar to the Cambridge depot. A large mural of the area by Kaye York has water damage. Someone had also just contacted the commission about restoring some of Midvale's historic buildings to their original look.
Meanwhile, new businesses are opening along the same stretch of highway. Hummingbird Cottage, Darrcy Gay's farm and local-goods shop at 2365 Highway 95 in Midvale, held its grand opening during Hen Dayz on Sept. 19 and 20. The Record Reporter reported vendors selling sourdough, home-canned pear sauce, local honey and laying hens. Hen Dayz returns every spring and fall, and the shop is open daily from 3:00 to 6:00.
If you own one of the older homes, storefronts or farm buildings in Cambridge or Midvale, its history is part of its value. Nikki Owens works with owners across Washington County who want to know what their property is worth today. Get your free home valuation, and Nikki will walk you through what she sees in your building, from the original structure to the work you've put into it.
