Idaho Candy Company Factory

Creator of the chocolate bar shaped like a potato and marketed as "the Idaho Spud," The Idaho Candy Company has been in business in a factory at 412 S. Eighth St. in Boise since 1909. The Idaho Candy Company is the only business within the National Register-listed South Eighth Street Historic District (1977) that still operates in its historic location. Most of the rest of the former buildings in the district - that once contained a creamery, a seed warehouse, an ice/produce shop. and many other businesses - have been converted into offices, stores, and restaurants. The company store at this location is open to the public on weekdays.

Idaho Candy Company has been manufacturing candy in their factory on S. Eighth Street in Boise since 1909. T.O. Smith, a journeyman candymaker founded the company in 1901 after moving to Boise and helping build a hotel in Nanpa. Smith made the candy at home, boxed it, and sold it door to door. He began making candy with employees in a small wooden building near 8th and Fort Streets. Smith teamed with members of the Adams family to build the three-story, orange brick factory building with cut stone trim in 1909.

The company is known for their chocolate bar named Idaho Spud, shaped like a potato and still made by hand in downtown Boise on vintage candy-making machines. First manufactured in 1913, the center is whipped cocoa-flavored marshmallow, surrounded by a dark chocolate shell and covered in shaved coconut. About 30,000 Idaho Spuds can be created in a day at the factory. The finished bars go through a sixty-foot cooling tunnel on a conveyor belt after being formed. Then, workers grab the bars by hand and place them in a channel, end to end, on the moving conveyor belt, to have the wrappers applied by machine. Several million of the spuds are sold every year. Another favorite is their second-oldest bar, Cherry Cocktail, first made around 1925; the center is a maraschino cherry and liquid surrounded by chocolate and peanuts. Around 1926, the company added the Old Faithful bar with marshmallow nougat covered in milk chocolate and peanuts. Many other bars, like the Fox Trot and Big Chief, have come and gone. A modern addition from 2012 is the Huckleberry Gem bar, a huckleberry-flavored marshmallow coated in chocolate, in two pieces shaped like gemstones. They've manufactured Owyhee Butter Toffee by hand here since 1925, and also make bulk and tub candies.

While some of the machinery has been upgraded over the years, some are almost as old as the building. They've even used the same brand of sugar - Amalgamated Sugar - for over a century. The factory easily runs through 1,200 pounds of chocolate in one day of production of Idaho Spuds plus 10,000 pounds of shaved coconut in a week.

In 1920, a warehouse was built on the corner of S. Eighth and Myrtle (now Main) Streets for the Idaho Candy Company, just feet from the factory; the warehouse is across the street from the National Register Historic District. Local architects Tourtellotte and Hummel designed the brick warehouse on a concrete foundation, featuring one story and a basement. The warehouse was documented for the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1987 before modifications to the loading dock were made due to upcoming street widening. Idaho Candy Company ships wholesale orders to a dozen states.

Don Wakeman, son of the former plant manager, purchased the Idaho Candy Company in 1969. John Wagers, a local accountant, bought the business in 1984; his son, David still runs the 23,000-square-foot factory with four manufacturing floors. Eighth, Ninth, Miller, and Broad Streets roughly outline the South Eighth Street Historic District, as listed in the National Register in 1977. Most of the buildings date from 1902 to 1915.

Hibbard, Don. NRHP nomination, South Eighth Street Historic District, Boise, Idaho. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1977.

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