Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Built in 1893, ghost tours to start again
The St. Ignatius Hospital sits empty on South Mill Street in Colfax since it was closed 53 years ago.
COLFAX - St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax sold to Landlock Holding, LLC, for $115,000 on April 23.
The facility at 1009 South Mill Street was sold by Anthony Griges and Marianne Salib.
Austin Storm and his wife Laura are behind Landlock Holding, the proprietor of Bully for You in Colfax and the Storm Cellar in Moscow.
"We've been working on this for some time because we love it and think it's worth preserving," said Austin. "Of course our goal is preservation."
He and Laura will partner with the Whitman County Historical Society as an approved project.
"It will be a very big project with a number of phases," Storm said. "With volunteer and giving opportunities, it really is a project bigger than us. It'll be a community project to save the building."
"Ghost tours" of the building will resume and overseen by the Colfax Chamber of Commerce. They start Thursday and are sold out.
"There's been sustained interest since the last time," said Storm.
Former owners Griges and Salib, his wife, operate Cross-Fit locations in Los Angeles.
He and Salib became owners of the building a second time after Derek Fincher, a man they sold it to in Spokane, defaulted on loans in 2019.
Griges contacted Storm, who had been interested in the building for seven years.
"The timing was right for both of us," Storm said.
A deal was soon put together for the 1893 property, which ceased operations as a hospital in 1968.
"I was glad it went to a local owner," said Val Gregory, former director of the Colfax Chamber of Commerce, which rented the building from Griges for ghost tours.
"If there's anybody in Colfax I'd want to own St. Ignatius, it would be Austin Storm. He's a go-getter. He gets things done," he added.
An approved project of the Historical Society means it may receive tax-deductible donations.
"The building is in considerably worse shape than seven years ago," Storm said, noting that he and Laura's intention is to be owners and stewards of the property.
Storm has set up a website at http://www.stignatiuscolfax.com to launch the project.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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