Burns Studio in Boise is closing after 93 years in an iconic building at 13th and State streets.

The owners have a buyer for the building and will sell their inventory and equipment this week at the studio.

The owners are retiring and setting up a website to display and sell photographs taken over nearly a century. They also decided to sell the studio's home, a large, brown house built by Grover and Ethel Burns in 1919.

For about two decades, third-generation owner Marilyn Bickle has run the business with her husband, Kelly Bickle, behind the lens. Bickle's parents are now dead, and this was "the last piece for me in settling [their] estate," she said.

The change in the photography industry — away from physical studios and toward digital photos — contributed to the couple's decision, she said. They shot their last photos at the studio last week, of a local family.

"We wanted to retire from active photography and take time to build up an historic website," she said. "We wanted to leave some sort of legacy."

Kelly Bickle has scanned about 2,000 negatives already to display on the website, boisebyburns.com.

The Bickles plan to be involved in the city of Boise's 150th birthday celebration, including a 30-portrait display Downtown this summer.

The house will be turned into a rental property, likely for young professionals or college students, Marilyn Bickle said.

"I am absolutely thrilled that this individual [buying the property] values the unique character of the studio," she said.

That character includes features like a chandelier Bickle's father built from old mining parts he found, she said.

The inventory sale will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Items will be significantly marked down, such as about 200 frames priced at about $10 to $75.

Audrey Dutton: 377-6448