This 113-year-old downtown Boise store is set to close. Here’s what its owners say
One of Boise’s oldest businesses is closing.
Idaho Blueprint & Supply plans to shut its doors for good in December after 113 years of selling blueprints, maps, digital prints and art supplies downtown.
Owners Christian and Sheila Cummins sold their building, lodged between restaurants and bars on Main Street, to local developer Jay Story earlier this year. They said he made an offer they couldn’t refuse.
“We thought we couldn’t pass that up,” Christian Cummins told the Idaho Statesman by phone. “It was a good mutual deal.”
Since then, the couple has been paying rent for the first time in many years. Rather than continue the month-to-month lease, downsize or find another building, the Cumminses decided it was the right time to close.
The family-owned business was passed down to Christian Cummins from his mother around 2008. She had inherited it from Christian Cummins’s grandfather, Tom Zabala, who bought the business from the Miller family.
“None of what I’m doing today would be possible without each of those steps,” he said. “Especially my mom – she set us up with the building and the business to move forward and do everything we’ve done for all these years.”
The 7,724-square-foot building, located at 619 W. Main St., is now listed by Story Commercial as available for lease for $10,000 a month.
Blueprint’s last day open is Dec. 16. In the meantime, until supplies run out, all printing, scanning, mounting and laminating services at the store will continue. Products will be discounted and all sales will be final.
The Cumminses posted a note to the business’s website on Tuesday thanking customers and employees past and present.
“We are not closing this company with anger, sadness (okay, maybe a little sadness), impulse or because we must,” the note said.
Sheila Cummins said they’ve already begun packing up and getting things in order. She said seeing all the familiar faces who’ve stopped in since the announcement has been emotional. She said she’s grateful for the loyal patrons who still fight downtown parking and traffic to visit their store.
“I’ve got almost all the art supplies discounted,” Sheila Cummins told the Statesman by phone. “We’re just lowering them down to our cost, and then we’ll probably do some donations with what’s left.”
Once the dust settles and the Cumminses vacate the building, they hope to attend to some home improvements, travel and visit their two children.
“(The business) is really all I’ve ever known,” Christian Cummins said. “It’s been an interesting ride the whole way – more ups than downs. Downtown has treated us nice.”
This story was originally published October 20, 2022 at 2:21 PM.
