Listen Up: River Street Evolution

The Erma Hayman House today

BY CHERIE BUCKNER-WEBB

I love spring! It holds special significance following two years of isolation, a pandemic, and uncertainty. This year, I’m joyful to raise my voice in celebration of yet another season, full of promise, a time to:

• Reconnect and unite with community

• Renew energy depleted by challenges of the past

• Review and mobilize sources of power, influence, and opportunity

• Re-establish personal, professional, community, and spiritual lives

All of these are embodied in the recently completed restoration of the Erma Hayman House that will be home to a phenomenal cultural center, located at 617 Ash Street in the River Street neighborhood. This small 900-square-foot sandstone house constructed in 1907 (purportedly of the same sandstone used in the construction of the Idaho State House) represents a convergence of divergent entities joined in purposeful collaboration: Dick Madry and the Hayman family, Capitol City Development Corporation, Boise City Department of Arts and History and the Erma Hayman Task Force, Micron Foundation, Shannon McGuire of Spark Strategy Solutions, William A. White, PhD, Director, River Street Archeologist Project, hundreds of volunteers, and the University of Idaho. The facility will serve as a testament to Boise’s commitment to historic preservation, arts and culture, a reminder of the challenges and triumphs of Blacks in Idaho and historical narratives of residents from the neighborhood.

Erma Hayman in the snow

JEANNE MADRY-YOUNG COLLECTION, MS078, BOISE CITY ARCHIVES

Additionally, William A. White, PhD, will present findings from archaeological projects including the discovery of a 1910 Basque Fronton, the recovery of 20,000 artifacts, and more, in late summer.

The River Street neighborhood was dubbed, pejoratively, as “across the tracks” when I was a youngster, and “where the colored folks lived.” And while many Black families lived in the area (including mine) bordered on the south by River Street, the north by Front Street, west by Americana Boulevard, and 11 th Street on the east, there were far more white folks living in the area than Blacks. However, River Street was one of few areas in Boise in which Black folks could rent and even purchase a home. And so it was that Mrs. Hayman and her husband purchased their home in the River Street neighborhood in 1948, where she lived, raised a family, contributed to the community, and toiled valiantly for 60+ years.

The Erma Hayman house will pay homage to one petite, yet fiercely courageous Black woman, the daughter of Amanda Chouteau Dodge Andre and Charles Edward Andre, born and raised in Nampa, Idaho, the 12th of 13 children. An Idahoan through and through, Mrs. Hayman was born on October 18, 1907, and passed away on November 2, 2009.

Renowned New York sculptor and representational figurative artist, Vinnie Bagwell, has been selected to create a public art exhibit with interpretive panels at the Hayman House, which pays tribute to Mrs. Hayman’s life and work from the time of her family’s move to Nampa, Idaho, to the time of her death at age 102 here in Boise. This is not just the Hayman’s history. This is Boise’s history and therefore, your hometown history too.