Stop Thirteen: 9th and Main

At this top, you will learn about the Yates building, the Alexander building, the Oxford Hotel, and the Sonna building.

You'll recall having read about Moses Alexander at other points in the tour. Can you recall some of the other buildings he was associated with? Alexander was also one of the founders of the Temple Beth Israel on the Boise Bench.

YATES BUILDING (SW Corner - Now patio area for KIN)

Designed by Nisbet & Paradice and constructed in 1909 for Captain John Yates. It served as an office space, bank and retail space, housing Alexander’s Clothing store before Moses Alexander constructed his own building across the street.

When the Boise State Bank occupied the building, it had a signature corner entrance.

ALEXANDER BUILDING (NE Corner)

Moses Alexander, former mayor of Boise and first Jewish Governor of Idaho, built his clothing store here in 1924, opening it in 1925 to much fanfare. Alexander’s first store opened in the 1890s, where “everyone pays the same price for the same piece of clothing.” It proved popular, and Alexander opened six stores across Southwest Idaho and in Oregon.

Designed by Tourtellotte and Hummel, the building features a white terra cotta veneer façade.

OXFORD HOTEL (Next to Alexander building on Main Street - Now parking garage)

Tourtellotte & Co. designed the Oxford Hotel for William Jones in 1905. In 1910, Nisbet & Paradice crafted two additional stores for the structure. Each room had disappearing beds, hot and cold water, and a telephone.

In 1915, the Oxford and a few other hotels were temporarily closed due to having a “general reputation for being houses of prostitution, lewdness, assignation and other indecent acts… [the] premises were a moral nuisance.”

SONNA BUILDING (NW Corner)

Peter Sonna constructed the Sonna building in 1888. It housed a hardware business on the first floor, and the second floor was an opera house. The building had the popular large class windows on the ground floor, and roof decorations made of wrought iron.

In 1891, and again in 1894, Sonna remodeled it to look more like a commercial building, eliminating the opera house. A modern brick façade was added in 1976.

Hart, Arthur A.. Historic Boise: An Introduction to the Architecture of Boise, Idaho, 1863-1938. 1993 Reprint, Boise, ID: Historic Idaho, Inc. 1979.

Hibbard, Don. National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form for Alexanders, June 14, 1978. Accessed August 19, 2023. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/fcc46ba1-0f3a-4b3a-8d3e-47b76887ef11.

Webb, Anna. “150 Boise Icons: Alexander Building.” The Idaho Statesman. March 16, 2013.

Wells, Merle W. and Arthur A. Hart. Boise: An Illustrated History. Sun Valley, CA: American Historical Press, 2000.