Anchoring a community

BoCo museum renews lease, plans for future expansions

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

After seven years of uncertainty, the Bonner County Historical Society and Museum renewed its lease in Lakeview Park on Sept. 2. The nonprofit continues to work with the city of Sandpoint on plans to renovate and expand the space to accommodate its growing collection of artifacts.

The museum first entered into its 40-year lease with the city of Sandpoint in 1979 during construction of the current building, agreeing to pay $1 per year in rent and pay for all future maintenance of the building. That lease expired in 2019; however, the city did not immediately extend it despite requests from the museum due to objections to the lease’s automatic renewal clause, which gave the nonprofit “the option to renew this lease for a like period on each successive termination” with little to no input from the city.

After going without an active lease for four years, the Sandpoint City Council granted a two-year extension in 2023, which was again allowed to lapse. During that time, staff and volunteers looked for alternative homes for the museum, should the city not renew its lease.

“In the process of negotiating the lease and having all of these discussions over the last couple of years, we had actually researched probably 15-20 other properties around the area, just to kind of assess them for feasibility,” said BCHSM Executive Director Hannah Combs. “This location has always been our ideal.”

These properties ranged in scale and price and included Sandpoint’s historic granary building (599 Church St.), which would have cost an estimated $11 million — not to mention the cost of moving. That’s money that the museum simply doesn’t have, despite a $1 million anonymous donation.

“We have, we think, about 400,000 items in our collection and the prospect of having to move all of that would be a huge expense of time and money,” said Combs.

Museum staff and volunteers remained dedicated to the Lakeview Park building despite the uncertainty, funding repairs and planning for future improvements. In 2024, the nonprofit spent $20,000 fixing old water and sewer lines. Then, in July 2026, it repaired the building’s leaking roof with funding from Bonner County and the Bill Jacky Estate. Finally, following negotiations between legal counsel on both sides, the museum was able to officially renew its lease in September, keeping the original terms and cementing its place in Lakeview Park for the foreseeable future.

“Personally, I’m very connected to this place in Lakeview Park and being able to be an anchor here and helping make this a real community space — or contributing to that,” said Combs.

Though they have already held several workshops gathering input on possible expansions and renovations over the past year, Combs said the recent lease renewal was the “green flag” the museum needed to begin planning in earnest. 

“We are still finishing up the concept phase,” said Combs. “We want to make sure that our members and the community are in support of this conceptually before we go to the expense of doing any sort of construction drawings or any more detailed plans.”

The BCHSM continues to work with the Sandpoint-based North Root Architecture to refine possible floor plans, which they will then present to the public. Proposed changes include creating additional storage space, classrooms and accessible archival areas, as well as renovating the building’s HVAC system to improve environmental controls and better preserve artifacts.

“We will have to have the city’s support for an expansion because we are in a city park,” said Combs. “They will have to give us their blessing to move forward with this project, but so far we’ve had a great experience working with the building department, and they’re giving us the guidance on how we need to move forward through this project.”

All proposed additions will be to the northwest side of the building and will not affect existing trees or play areas, though the museum’s yellow caboose will need to change its position within the park.

“We’re trying to find a place where it is still prominent, because we love that people recognize us for the caboose,” said Combs. “As they drive by, the big, yellow caboose is what they see, so we’re making sure that that’s still the part of the museum that waves ‘Hello’ at people.”

For more information on the nonprofit and the developing expansion, visit bonnercountyhistory.org.