Pioneer homes of Jawbone Flats article from the Lewiston Morning Tribune

              Sunday, August 4, 2002
LEWISTON MORNING TRIBUNE
Section
D
SUNDAY A.M.
The
Pioneer
Homes of
Jawbone Flats
Several houses date back to the
beginning days of Clarkston
The only Clarkston home on the
National Register of Historic
Places is near the intersection
of 15th and Chestnut streets.
The white, two-story Van Arsdol
home is back from the road and looks
occupied, but no one lives there.
"When we got the home it was in
utter chaos. There was a bunch of
druggies living in it," says Carol
Fuhrman, 58, who has owned the
home with her husband Boyd, 72,
since 1990.
The house fell into the hands of
people who used it for a large-scale
marijuana manufacturing operation,
Fuhrman says. A bathroom was used
to create steam for the plants; an
upstairs bedroom was lined with alu-'
minum foil to concentrate the light.
Walls were stripped as wood was
burned for heat.
"We took eight cattle truck loads of
garbage out," she says.
Once the house was cleared out,
the Fuhrmans, whose home is adjacent to the Van Arsdol lot, used it to
store supplies for Boyd's roofing
business. The inside is now reminiscent of an old barn.
No one is sure when the first part
of the house — a small frame cabin
— was built, though some accounts
place it as early as 1864. Additions
took place over the next few decades,
but the outside has remained mostly
unchanged since the early 1900s.
The owner and builder was C.C.
Van Arsdol, one of the founders of
Clarkston. He engineered bringing
irrigation water from Asotin Creek to
Clarkston, designed the Lewiston
Spiral Highway and Rattlesnake
Grade, and the path of the Grand
Trunk Railway in Canada. He died in
1941.
When the drug makers were finally
evicted, neighbors suggested Boyd
and Carol buy the home. "I said, 'No
way do I want that mess/ " Carol
says.
But her husband convinced her
that at the right price, the house
could make a good project.
"We thought down the road we
would go room by room and fix it up,
but we're probably not going to be
able to do that now," Carol says.
Boyd suffered a heart illness about a
year ago and is unable to work.
The home would cost about
$20,000 to restore, Carol says, and
she is unsure if that will happen.
"I ask our kids what they're goirfg
to do with it when we're gone. They
say they'll fix it up and put our
antiques in it and charge people to
come and look."
• •'•
On the south side of Clarkston.
Doreen Bridgmount has plenty for
people to see.'
She has spent nearly $175,000 renovating her home at 707 Highland
The brick Billups family home on Elm Street was built in 1904 although
the family lived mere only a short time. It Is undergoing a restoration
project by the current owners.
Ave. into a British-style bed and
breakfast
"I was on holiday from England
and having lunch in Clarkston with a
friend," says Bridgmount. "I saw the
old house, saw its character and
potential and I bought it"
She bought the house in 1987 and
See Homes, Page 6D
Elizabeth and Don Greggain live In an early-day home on
2nd Street, a Victorian renovation with colorful walls and
decorations, circa 1910.
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B&^mMl     III
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photos by Barry Kough      story by Hyatt Buchanan
of the Lewbton Tribune
The white wood house set back on 15th Street was built by C.C Van Arsdol,
one of Clarkston's founders. He engineered the town's early Irrigation system
and designed the Lewiston Spiral Highway and Rattlesnake Grade.