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New St. Elmo's owner talks future

The wooden planks are musty and untouched, but a new electrical cord runs along the floor.

The St. Elmo’s Building in Palouse has a new owner and a new vision.

Seth Anawalt of Pullman, bought the property last November and has been putting work into his vision of its future.

“Every time I walk in there, it’s got a good feeling to it,” Anawalt said. “My idea is to do a balance between a motel and apartments on the second and third floor. I want to plan apartments that could also serve as temporary guest suites or hotel suites. That’s the best of both worlds.”

The 1888 former railroad-boom hotel is built on old pilings, for which a steam machine was used to pound them into the ground. The front and back of the building are not structural. They are essentially façade brick, said Anawalt, who owns Anawalt Property Management in Pullman.

On the building’s second floor, there is an existing apartment and restored rooms on one side, while the rest is just blank walls and splintered studs from long ago.

Among the tasks Anawalt would like to take on for the building are opening up the shuttered daylight shaft, which runs down the middle of the building. It was designed to make full use of daylight in a time before electricity.

Anawalt plans to restore the elevator shaft also, and open the cavernous first floor for band performances, dances and community events.

“I want the building to flow from one space to another,” he said. He would like to connect the lobby area to the new bakery and to Dot’s Vintage Funk, which is in the retail space facing Main Street.

“I’m tentatively thinking of some sort of spa on the second or third floor,” Anawalt said. “There’s no question all of this is going to be phased in over time. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

He said that he wants to use natural wood floors and natural tile.

“I don’t want to be really fancy. I like the idea of keeping it simple,” he said.

He has set up a shop for himself in the building and is doing a lot of the work himself.

Anawalt knew of the building long before he became owner.

He heard about it in 2001 and went inside to look.

Bob and Jacqueline Strack bought it then.

“I couldn’t believe they bought the building,” said Anawalt. “It was so ragged. The work they’ve done is so impressive, really. They rescued it.”

Anawalt said that he plans to put steam heat in the building, which used to have fireplaces in each of the small rooms.

“There’s just nice things about the 19th century I really like,” he said.

Born and raised in Pullman, Anawalt got an education degree from Eugene Bible College in Eugene, Ore. He continued his studies at Gonzaga, earning a Bachelor of Science in Music Theory along with a minor in English.

Since then, he has had a career in property management while publishing fiction books for Tate Publishing of Oklahoma.

He is the son of the late Loretta Anawalt, an early volunteer for Pullman Civic Trust in the ’70s. Seth painted building fronts in downtown Pullman as a teenager. His father is a retired English professor from WSU.

Anawalt learned his construction skills mainly through being a property manager.

“As a property manager, you learn how to do most everything,” he said.

Right now the building has two tenants with Dot’s and the soon-to-open Mimi’s Bakery.

“I won’t be making any money on the leases. It will all go back into the building,” Anawalt said.

He indicated that for the work he does, he will keep one key in mind.

“I’m going to plan the apartments and other spaces into the building respecting the original architecture as much as possible,” he said.

Author Bio

Garth Meyer, Former reporter

Author photo

Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.

 

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