MickDuff's renovation earns Orchid Award

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SANDPOINT — It's been many things over the years — post office, library, city hall and title company to name a few.

Now the home of MickDuff's Brewing Company, the building has another name to add to the list — Orchid Award winner. The Excellence in Historic Preservation award is given to projects that demonstrate outstanding adherence to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards in preservation, restoration, renovation, or adaptive reuse (residential or commercial).

"I was pretty excited," Duffy Mahoney, one of the co-owners of MickDuff's Brewing Company, said. "I didn't know a lot about it and then [Sandpoint Preservation Committee member Steve Garvan] called me and he told me how excited he was so then I kind of went, it must be a pretty big deal."

"It's pretty neat," Mickey Mahoney, brother and MickDuff's co-owner, said.

The building joins the Sandpoint Depot, the Tanner-Nesbitt House and the Heartwood Center of the list of buildings honored with the award. Those buildings were selected in 2015

The brothers purchased the old federal building, located at 419 N. Second Ave., in September 2019. They then spent the next 15 months restoring and preserving the building, one of the most historic buildings in the area and which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

Renovations were complicated by a change in use — going from a title company to a restaurant — and multiple past remodels and updates that needed to be made. That meant complying with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, fire codes and other modernization requirements.

Exterior work included replacing sidewalks and dangerous front stairs, restoring windows, repairing the roof, adding an outdoor patio and landscaping. Interior work included new ADA bathrooms, new tile floors and restoration of original wood and concrete floors, updated electrical and HVAC systems, plaster repair, lighting restoration, and more as well as adding a commercial kitchen.

While there was a lot of work involved, and necessary modernizations required, the brothers said they were determined to keep the renovations as authentic and as true to the building's late 1920s construction as possible.

A master wood craftsman, Roger Funk, and a crew of several people spent nine months taking out windows, rebuilding them and reinstalling them. Rotten wood and broken glass was replaced. Replicas of missing interior doors were built, and another found at an architectural salvage company on the East Coast.

The brothers served as their own general contractors to a degree and "we did most of the work we could legally ourselves" to ensure the work matched their vision and to keep costs down.

Once they took possession and the building was officially theirs, the Mahoneys had an abatement company remove all of the asbestos — a major project considering the age and size (12,000 square feet) of the building. Other major projects included the windows and front stairs, which required a lot of concrete work.

The SBA had wanted the brothers to bring in a general contractor, but the pair said it wasn't an option.

"That makes it so we can't buy the building, that literally ruins the loan," Duffy Mahoney said. "It's too much money."

Because they had a Small Business Association loan, and because the building is listed, the Mahoneys had to have any changes approved by the state. That meant a lot of forwarding of plans and photos to ensure it meet requirements.

"It worked out," Duffy Mahoney said. "It just was difficult."

It wasn't the first time the brothers had look at the old federal building. They'd previously considered buying it before but their offer had been turned down. Several others — Mickey Mahoney said their real estate agent told them at least 12 offers for the building had been accepted and, for one reason or another, had fallen through.

"Buying the building, we had some luck, too," Duffy Mahoney said. "We had originally tried to buy the building a couple years prior and our offer wasn't accepted and then other people actually gotten accepted offers."

"Where it almost went to closing and people backed out," added Mickey.

So, when they heard the building was again on the market, the brothers figured they'd try again. This time their offer was accepted.

"We were pretty nervous when we posted on Facebook to announce that we bought the building so we waited until we were actually officially owned it because people don't like to say how they feel on the internet, you know," Duffy said. "And actually, it was like 100% positive and like 1,000s of comments. So we were like maybe this will work."

"It got hundreds of shares, which was pretty cool," added Mickey. "It was a great [response] that it went viral."

Their previous building on First Avenue was getting too small and the brothers had been looking for a while to find just the right spot.

"Our downtown location had some major issues and we knew we just needed a new home," Duffy Mahoney said. "Both me and Mickey have a love for old things, old, especially well-designed, well-built things. And this, when you walked into the building, you could just tell that this was well-built."

From brass pipes — almost unheard of when the building was built — to threaded conduit, still the standard today, and steel beams throughout, the building was and is a gem. Albeit one that needed a lot of work to shine.

To build the same building today, the Mahoneys figured it would have cost more than $7 million.

"I can't even fathom how many people it took to build their building without cranes and the like," said Mickey.

When the building was completed in 1928, it housed the post office, Forestry Service, Civil Services, Internal Revenue, Agriculture, and War Recruiting. In the late '60s, the building was purchased by the city of Sandpoint, which converted it into the city’s library. In 1999, the library moved into its new location and the building was sold to a private party. The new owner renovated the main floor and leased the space to the First American Title Company, which moved after the brothers bought the building.

Because of the pandemic, the brothers didn't rush to get the project done and were able to scour the internet and architectural salvage companies to find everything from tiles that matched the period to light fixtures from an old school built the same year of their building.

"We kind of took some of the stress off and just took our time," Duffy said. "I know our banker probably was ready for us to finish way earlier, but we just took our time and really tried to just do right."

"We tried to be as authentic as we could," added Mickey.

Steve Garvan, a longtime player of MickDuff's legendary trivia games, also happens to be a member of the city's Historic Preservation Committee. They'd kept him in the loop during the renovation process. When he saw the work, Garvan and fellow committee member Carrie Logan encouraged the pair to submit the project for consideration for an Orchid Award.

The project is worthy of the award because of the time and effort that went into it, committee members said.

"The Mahoney brothers like to preserve rather than replace," committee members said in a statement. "It is much easier to replace building pieces with cheaper modern alternatives that are usually inferior in many aspects."

That wasn't the case with the brothers, instead necessary modernizations such as HVAC, electrical, plumbing and sprinkler systems were tucked into catwalks and voids. New floor coverings, paint colors and furnishings were elected because they were either from the late 1920s or matched the look.

"We tried to you know, tried to make it really nice," Duffy said. "We plan to be here for a long time and own the building for a long time."

During their research, the brothers found out there are three identical buildings in the United States — one in Texas, one in Vermont and one in Pennsylvania, all three of which are still federal buildings.

"This is the only one with a basement, though," Mickey is quick to add.

The brothers suspect that the building's style — Spanish Colonial Revival — was selected so it would be a landmark for years to come.

"It sounds like they did it on purpose so it would stick out," Duffy said.

"And really, it kind of looks like a castle almost where it's like this thing on a hill," added Mickey.

While the features may be an ode to grandeur, the materials for the structure were found close to home. Lumber came from a local mill, bricks came from just across the border in Washington state and concrete in the building contains river rocks from Sandpoint.

The pair are proud of the building, and of the work it took to make it shine once again. They love hearing stories from customers who remember it from one of its past lives.

"It's neat to hear those stories because we have spent so much time renovating it," Duffy said. "We're proud of it and it seems like most everybody we've talked to about it are really excited."

Mickey agreed, and said the brothers are dedicated to making sure the building continue to stand at the community's heart.

"Now my biggest goal for the rest of my life is making sure we don't ruin it," he said.

"And keep it clean," adds Duffy.