Influential, iconic hub on the Boise River is redesigning for a new future. What’s next?
It can be easy to see the veins of power in Boise. The Capitol. The Idaho Supreme Court. The Ada County administration building on Front Street. The Zions Bank tower.
But one of the biggest nerve centers of the Idaho elite is an easily overlooked building along the Boise River Greenbelt and buried amid a grove of trees off River Street: the Arid Club.
The club has been home to generations of Idaho’s famous change makers, including members of the Albertson, Oppenheimer and Simplot families. Familiar local developers, lawyers and businessmen have been members, including families such as the Carleys, Troxells, Days and Dalys.
But after around 40 years on the Greenbelt near Payette Brewing, the club is welcoming both new and old members as it prepares for an extensive $1 million-plus renovation.
Elizabeth Langley, the club’s board president and CEO of Boise’s Echelon Group, said the remodel would include cosmetic and some structural changes.
The renovations include a redesigned bar area, co-working spaces on the second floor for members to work from and a new dining room. Plans call for opening a wall in the back with windows looking onto the Greenbelt while a chandelier modeled after the Boise River sits above.
“We really want to capitalize on the river,” Langley said in an interview with the Idaho Statesman.
Langley said the plan is to rip out and replace all the furnishings to create a lighter feel than the old-school atmosphere the club has had since it was built in the 1980s. The Arid Club will do the renovations in segments so it can remain open during construction.
“It’s going to be much lighter in coloring, more kind of warm colors, more inviting,” she said. “We have that dark club feel now, and it’ll still have an Idaho club feel — because that’s what it is — but hopefully a more bright space that is less smoking room, more relaxing.”
The club had a maximum capacity of 350 memberships in the past and now has about 280, though Langley said that number is likely much higher, since married couples are included as a single membership.
Memberships are granted by invitation only. Members must spend $1,500 on food per year and cough up a monthly fee of $350. Normally there’s a $4,000 initiation fee, though Langley said that was lowered to $1,000 for December and will be $2,000 in January.
Who is defining Idaho industry?
The renovations, Langley said, would better accommodate a world that has changed since the club was founded as a men’s-only club by a group of industry and political leaders in 1885. It remained a men’s-only club until 1992.
“They came out to this little map dot of a trading post and decided that they wanted some of the comforts of the East Coast,” Langley said. “So they founded this club, and it kind of had a brotherhood-type feel to it.”
The club has been an iconic piece of Boise lore. It has played host to countless debates, forums, parties and historic figures, such as when famed boxer James Corbett, the “champion pugilist of the world,” visited the city in 1893, according to Statesman archives. Corbett had knocked out heavyweight champion John Sullivan to claim the title eight months before, and he would later be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
“The champion was later driven to the Arid club, where he spent some time playing billiards, his favorite pastime, with manager Brady, of the Corbett company,” according to an 1893 Statesman article. “During the afternoon, a Statesman reporter called at the club and shook the hand that rained such terrific blows on the physiognomy of John L. Sullivan at New Orleans, wresting from the Boston boy the championship laurels.”
The club faded for a time shortly after (Statesman archives reference the club just 23 times between 1900 and 1929) until a modern re-founding in the 1940s by recognizable names like the Albertsons and Simplots, Langley said.
“They just got together once a month and had good conversation and excellent food,” Langley said. “And it grew from there.”
First housed in a rented building downtown, the club outgrew its space and built the modern building along the Greenbelt, where Langley says it has continued the traditions of socializing over food, debate and events.
“There have been countless meetings that occurred here,” Langley said. “I can think of things like the Boise mall. I can think of things like revitalizing downtown when they put in the Grove. All those kinds of conversations happened in this building or in this club.”
The club extends invitations to every sitting Idaho governor, though it’s up to them if they wish to join.
The world, and Idaho, has changed since the club was founded and since its 1940s rebirth, Langley said. Around 40% to 60% of business leaders are female in Idaho now, depending on the industry, she said. Business leaders come from all walks of life, every background and every culture, Langley said.
“The Arid Club really wants to represent who is defining industry,” she said. “In Idaho, when you look at the boards and executives at fellow companies … we want to look like that.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2024 at 4:00 AM.
