This historic Eagle home might have been demolished. Here’s what it is set to become
The city of Eagle may have saved one of its prized historic homes from possible demolition.
Eagle Mayor Jason Pierce hopes to turn the 90-year-old Jackson House, once home to Orville and Floy Jackson, into a community center and Eagle’s own “little Central Park.”
Eagle bought the downtown home in September for $1 million, Pierce said Friday by phone.
The Jackson House is located at 127 S. Eagle Road and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The home’s former owner, Shari Sharp, who is the only child of the Jacksons, put the home up for sale in 2017. When the grand Tudor-style home, with its nearly 2.5 acres, was on the market, Sharp told the Statesman that some developers were interested in the acreage, but not so much the home.
Orville Jackson was the longtime owner of Eagle’s nearby drug store and mercantile. Pierce said Jackson was known for “never turning away people who couldn’t pay for their prescriptions.”
The Jacksons hired Boise architects John Tourtellotte and Charles Hummel to design their home during the Great Depression. Tourtellotte and Hummel were known for their work on the Idaho Statehouse.
Before Pierce was elected mayor, his predecessor, Stan Ridgeway, was interested in buying the home in 2015, but the city and Sharp could not agree on the price. Ridgeway said he thought it was important to keep the home intact, the Statesman reported.
Pierce decided the Jackson House would make a good community center.
Eagle briefly had a different community center. The city in 2019 bought a 1.5-acre property with three buildings at 175 E. Mission Drive known as The Landing, just across from Eagle Elementary School. It fixed up the buildings and opened the center in December 2019, the month after Pierce and two new City Council members were elected.
Pierce closed that center in his first week in office, saying the city had not obtained a certificate of occupancy, met Fire Department safety recommendations or installed proper drainage. A few months later, the city sold the community center to April and Brad Dillon, of the Dillon car-dealership family and donors to Pierce’s campaign, for use as a private school.
The decisions contributed to animosity between old and new council members. In a combative meeting, Pierce cast the tie-breaking vote to sell the center.
The Jackson House needs improvements, but when it is ready to be open to the public, Pierce hopes it can be a place where people can take tours inside the house and “enjoy the green space outside.”
He envisions an event center for city events and private events like weddings and birthday parties.
Pierce said he wanted to make sure the house stayed intact. The city deed-restricted the property, so if the city ever wanted to move or make changes to the house, the family members would have to approve, he said.
In 2017, Sharp hoped that the city could purchase it and make it an events center.
Pierce said he worked closely with Sharp throughout the process and said she is delighted about the plans.
“She is happy to know this is forever taken care of,” he said.
Pierce said the city will spend the next year renovating the home and landscaping the yard.
The sale was first reported by KTVB.
This story was originally published November 14, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
