The William Bernd Building
Over the last few years, the people of Sandpoint have seen a number of our historic buildings destroyed. Some have fallen in the name of progress and some have become sacrifices to the money god. A few have been fortunate enough to have owners who see the importance of their buildings to the community and have gone to great lengths to preserve the integrity of these historic structures. To name a few, the old Federal Building (Post Office – Library) located on 2nd Avenue and Alder - The school building on Euclid now renovated – and the Bernd Building located on 1st Avenue. We owe a debt of thanks to these people who care enough about our town to refrain from making it look like a continuous row of matchstick houses or a collective glob of misshapen wasp nests. Some of our elected “public servants” have become so obsessed with sidewalks that they seem to have lost sight of what is happening to the historic buildings one finds along said sidewalks.
The next time you stroll down 1st Avenue stop in the area of the Image Maker and look across the street. You will see the words "1907 W. A. BERND," on a brick building on the west side of the street. That building today is the new store of Coldwater Creek. It was renovated with a retail store in mind but the integrity of this historic building was retained.
The building is now 100 years old and was built by William August Bernd who was born in Bernburg, Germany, around 1862. In 1880, at age 18, he came to the United States with his parents. Forty-one year old W. A. Bernd made his way to Sandpoint, Idaho in 1903. He was unmarried at the time.
Bernd bought the former "Home Bakery" building at 111 N. First Avenue. and opened a dry goods and clothing store and he lived in a house on Second Ave. behind the store. In the spring of 1907, William A. Bernd purchased property from L. D. Farmin, on which he planned to build a "good and substantial brick, two-story building" in the 300 block of north First Avenue. The new building bearing the Bernd name was completed in the fall of 1907 and he opened a fourteen-bed hotel on the second floor. He leased the south half of the ground floor, 309 N. First, to Francis D. Fowler who operated a Dry Goods Store. He leased the north half of the ground floor, 311 N. First Avenue to the Frazier Brothers & Co. Grocery Store.
Some time between 1910 and 1912, William August Bernd married Sarah Leona Hughes. Mr. and Mrs. Bernd lived in their hotel and continued to operate the store at 111 N. First. Some time between 1913 and 1916, Bernd and his wife moved from Sandpoint to a ranch at Turner, Oregon, near Salem. They rented out their property in Sandpoint.
J.C. and Anna Leatherman ran the hotel as the "Bernd Hotel" until 1920. Tillie Fleming (Mrs. Glenn H. Fleming), who also had the St. James Hotel, managed the Bernd Hotel for a time. According to local lumberjacks, Tillie kept a few "ladies of the evening" upstairs. After that, C.B. and Nina Brown, who had the Ponderay Hotel, ran the Bernd hotel as the "Lincoln Apartments".
William August Bernd died in Marion County, Oregon, on March 13, 1922. Sarah Bernd retained ownership of the Bernd Building in Sandpoint but she heavily mortgaged it to Bertha E. Johnson of Sandpoint. When Mrs. Sarah Leona (Hughes) Bernd passed away in 1931, her brother, Charles B. Hughes, and her sister, Mary (Hughes) King, both of Boulder, Colorado, inherited the building. The heirs had no interest in the building and let it go to Bertha Johnson rather than pay the mortgage.