Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Palouse Arms wall collapse
The collapsed wall at the Palouse Arms building is being demolished. The wall was built in 1920 and fell unexpectedly last month.
A part of a building is in the process of coming down in Palouse after a wall collapsed on the former Palouse Arms Apartments.
The wall, which is part of an apportioned section of the building, collapsed outward Nov. 15.
Building owner Leonard Koepke of Moscow has been working to clear out the section in the past two weeks, for which the city issued a demolition permit Nov. 24.
“We don’t know what caused it specifically,” said Palouse Fire Chief Mike Bagott. “It had been structurally questionable for quite some time.”
Weather conditions that day were rainy and windy, but not exceptionally so.
The collapse affected roughly half of the west wall, on a part of the building which comprises about a third of it.
The wall section was part of an addition to the building, which is estimated to have been built in the 1920s.
“It was incredibly poorly built,” said Koepke, a roofing contractor by trade. “Soft, mushy, red clay bricks and the rock foundation.”
Koepke has taken out half of the wall already and half of the roof. The cave-in affected four apartments, two of which are lost and Koepke is working to save the third and fourth.
He estimates 60,000 pounds of bricks remain to be disposed. The bricks are being loaded into a dump truck and taken to Wasankari Construction of Moscow, which recycles them for arts and crafts use.
“I have not heard from the insurance company at all,” said Koepke. “I don’t have a warm fuzzy feeling about that.”
As part of a potential claim, Koepke is seeking information about wind speeds during the time of day during which the wall collapsed. He has also heard there may have been a direct witness.
“A little old lady with a dog supposedly saw it fall down,” he said.
Koepke, who bought the building a year and a half ago, has worked to restore the eight apartments to be available for rent as early as February.
Replacing sheet rock and appliances, much of the previous work he had already done was unaffected.
“It does appear that the original part of the building has not been damaged at all,” he said.
As for the wall clean-up, about 40 feet of the 12-13 foot tall brick wall remains to be taken down – which Koepke will knock it down with a trackhoe.
Once it is all complete, Koepke will have the power turned back on at the building and hopes to begin renting one bedroom and studios – and possibly commercial space – next year.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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