McEuen Field Part 2

This photo, circa late 1950's, shows part of the McEuen property on the lower right. This City Parking Lot is gravel, there is one boat launch and a bundle of old docks at the seawall, the current boat trailer parking is dirt and weeds, used mostly once a year as the pits for the Diamond Cup hydroplane races.

Here are some interesting facts about the McEuen property.

Dating back to the 1880's, this site has been many things. Tony Tubbs had a hotel where you could stay, eat, drink and find a girlfriend for the night. Later a sawmill was there. It also had a railroad line that continued out on a dock to load Silver Valley ore from steamboats. It was an industrial site.

Later, under ownership of the County, it became the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. A land deal with the City of Coeur d'Alene moved the fairgrounds to their current location. During and after WWII, small homes filled a neighborhood roughly where the baseball field is today.

In the early 1950's the property was considered for various uses, one of which was a shopping center, that being the commercial fad of the era. A number of people opposed such a use and the crusade to crate public greenspace was begun. One of those people was Mae McEuen.

Mae McEuen never owned this property nor did she give it to the City. I find it amazing that even now some people believe this myth. The McEuens owned a grocery store in the downtown area and, like many local businesses, supported youth sports. She was an avowed critic of any commercial development and was active with the group pushing greenspace at the foot of Tubbs Hill. When all was said and done, McEuen was honored by having this site named after her.

Mae McEuen was an avid supporter of youth sports, that is true. But was it the only reason she had for designating the area as greenspace? I have heard firsthand from people who lived here then and it was also given that, since a grocery super store was to no doubt be a part of any proposed shopping center, self interest in preventing neighborhood competition also played a part in McEuen's stand. I say this not to detract from what Mae McEuen did, but to put it in perspective. History isn't always a rosey as it is believed to be.

Until the mid 1970's, the City also used the east end of McEuen as the home for the City Street Department. An old industrial building was used as the shop/garage until being torn down for what is now City Hall.

It is important that you understand the past as you look to the future. Thursday night is the first of what will probably be a number of public meetings to discuss where McEuen is going. Stay tuned as I'll be covering what Hyatt-Palma, Walker-Macy and the Gang of Nine were and what their findings and visions were as well as how community input and public planning meetings shaped the concepts that were adopted by the City Council in 2002.