"Workin' 9 to 5"
Boise Suffragists in Downtown Boise
Downtown history tours often focus on the architecture of buildings and the businesses they held. Invariably, these stories primarily focus on white men. The aim of this tour is to depart from the traditional narrative and, instead, show the indelible mark women have left on downtown Boise.
During the campaign to secure women's right to vote, Boise women moved in and around downtown Boise, advocating for their rights and trying to better their community. Local leaders sought to include women’s suffrage in Idaho's constitution in 1890, but delegates to the state constitutional convention denied the inclusion proclaiming statehood was at stake if they allowed women's suffrage. After this disappointment, women in the state rallied under the Equal Suffrage Association of Idaho and formed local clubs with the goal of amending the Idaho State Constitution. The Boise Equal Suffrage Association formed June 2, 1896.
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Boise City Hall
The Boise Equal Suffrage Association held their first meeting in Boise City Hall, located at Eighth and Idaho streets. Architect James C. Paulsen designed the building, along with six other buildings in Boise between 1891 and 1893. City Hall was completed in 1893 in the Romanesque architectural style.
The Boise Equal Suffrage Association met weekly and initially held their meetings in Council Chambers. By the end of June, the association had secured a meeting space in the Methodist Church at Eighth and Bannock streets. The association recorded in their minutes, “A vote of thanks was extended to the Mayor for his kindness in allowing us use of Council Chamber.” Walter E. Pierce was the Mayor of Boise at the time.
Photo Courtesy Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-113514
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First Methodist Church
In June 1896, the Boise Equal Suffrage Association began meeting at the First Methodist Church at Eighth & Bannock streets. They held their first meeting at the church on June 30, 1896.
Construction of the original church building started in 1874; Idaho Territorial Governor Thomas Bennett spoke at the cornerstone ceremony. The church was used for religious services and community events until the congregation outgrew the building and moved into a new structure constructed at Tenth and State streets. The congregation eventually outgrew that building as well and built a new church on Eleventh Street, known today as Cathedral of the Rockies.
Photo Courtesy 1893 Boise Sanborn Fire Insurance Map and Idaho State Archives HB-37
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Sonna Building
The Sonna Building, commissioned by Peter Sonna, was built in 1888. He housed his hardware business on the first floor and his opera house on the second floor. The brick building included popular large glass windows on the ground floor and roof decorations made of wrought iron. The Idaho Equal Suffrage Association held their second state convention at the building July 2-3, 1896.
Next door to the Sonna Building was the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union’s (WCTU) reading room. The WCTU eventually donated their books to the Boise City Council, and they were used in the free library operated by the Columbian Club.
Photo Courtesy Idaho State Archives 71-162.1
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McCarty Block
Martha McCarty commissioned a three-story building located at Main Street and Capitol Boulevard (known then as Seventh Street). Referred to as the McCarty Block, it was slated to cost $10,000 and was constructed in 1894-1895. McCarty served as one of several vice presidents of the Boise Equal Suffrage Association and participated on an association subcommittee that aimed to get memberships from businesses. The memberships meant the businesses supported suffrage cause.
The building is located on the left side of this photo; the Egyptian Theatre is across the street.
Photo courtesy Idaho State Archives MS511-172c
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Statesman Offices
Newspapers played a significant role during the campaign for women’s voting rights. Several suffragists founded and ran their own newspapers, including Abigail Scott Duniway, who was an active suffragist in the Pacific Northwest and lectured frequently in Idaho. She shared her activist writings in her newspaper, The New Northwest. Outside of subscribing to Duniway’s paper, Boiseans could read editorials in support of suffrage in the local newspaper, The Idaho Statesman. Editor Milton Kelly often published notices of speeches occurring in Boise, and his wife, Lois Humphrey, was known as a “pioneer suffragist.”
Photo Courtesy Idaho State Archives 60-1.22
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Bristol Hotel/Milner Hotel
Commissioned by Captain John Yates and designed by architects Nisbet & Paradice, Hotel Bristol joined the Boise skyline in 1910. Yates named the hotel after his birthplace, Bristol, Maine. It was situated only one block from the train depot at Tenth & Front streets, making it one of the closest hotels to the depot. Other notable hotels in the immediate area included the Idanha and the Owyhee.
In 1919, Harry Cosho purchased the Hotel Bristol. After his death in 1932, his wife Maude Cosho took over operations. During the 1930s, she served in the state legislature and continually advocated for a bill that would allow women to serve on juries. It did not pass during her tenure as a legislator but was eventually signed into law in 1943. In addition to her time in the legislature, she served as the City of Boise’s Treasurer, Purchasing Agent, and Budget Officer.
Cosho eventually sold the Hotel Bristol, and it was renamed the Milner Hotel. In 1964, the building was demolished due to urban renewal.
Photo courtesy Idaho State Archives 63-176.88b
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McCarty Building, 9th & Idaho streets
Martha McCarty commissioned a second building in 1909. The building was built on the northeast corner of Ninth and Idaho streets. Designed by architects Charles Wayland and James Fennel, the structure exhibits a zig-zag cornice motif, an uncommon feature in Boise architecture. The building still stands today, an unknown landmark to McCarty’s business aptitude.
Photo courtesy Idaho State Archives, 61-143.82e, 61-95.13
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Temperance Fountain
Boise’s local chapter of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) donated a bronze drinking fountain to the City of Boise on July 2, 1910. It was placed on the sidewalk outside of City Hall at Eighth and Idaho streets. The donation honored Mary B. Tolles, a Boise woman who worked towards temperance and who had passed away in 1909. According to one story, Mary Tolles was responsible for the highly popular ice water barrels placed at busy intersections in downtown Boise during the scorching summer months.
The fountain can be seen today at the current City Hall.
Photo courtesy The Idaho Statesman & Boise City Dept. of Arts & History
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Territorial Capitol
Idaho’s first capital city was Lewiston, a busy mining town in the north. In 1864 the seat of government moved to Boise after a heated debate – and some say – nefarious plots. Boise City officials reserved a special block for territorial government buildings in 1867, calling the block “Capitol Square.” It took almost two decades before the Territorial Capitol was built. It was designed by Elijah Myers in the Romanesque style and completed in 1886. It did not have indoor plumbing, and government officials were required to use an outhouse. In 1919 it was torn down to make way for the east wing of the current State Capitol building.
Noted suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway spoke twice in this building; once to legislators in 1887 and again in 1889 to delegates writing Idaho’s state constitution.
Photo courtesy Idaho State Archives 76-138.18
The story of women's suffrage in Boise is not contained to a single structure or a single woman. Our goal is to tell these women’s stories. But we also will seek out and share the experiences of women who were marginalized or unable to participate because of racism. As the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) state in their definition of women’s suffrage, this history is “about women’s rights, but it is also equal parts an American story of race, class, citizenship, gender, immigration, political identity, and values, and the intersections where those meet in America’s collective narrative and history.” This complex history exist at all levels of the movement and throughout the various decades, and is even present in Boise's physical landscape.
To learn more, visit our page So We Did: Celebrating Women's Suffrage at 100: www.boiseartsandhistory.org/suffrage