Then and Now photos: Coeur d’Alene

 Until the 1960s, the Coeur d’Alene waterfront was occupied by a steamboat landing, a lumber mill, a seaplane dock, a train yard, industrial warehouses and a log storage area. But then the transformation to a tourist destination began in earnest. Many credit Bob Templin, a World War II veteran and restaurateur from Ritzville, for the first waterfront resort, a 44-room inn called the North Shore Motor Hotel, built in 1964. A convention center was added in 1966. A seven-story tower, with a top-floor restaurant called Cloud 9, opened in 1974. Although the lake and hotel attracted visitors, it was Templin’s salesmanship that built the Lake City’s convention business. In an infamous business coup in the early 1980s, Templin lost control of Western Frontiers, and new owner Duane Hagadone and partner Jerry Jaeger transformed the North Shore into the Coeur d’Alene Resort, incorporating the original North Shore buildings into the new complex. Beverly’s restaurant occupies the former Cloud 9 space. Templin built a new hotel on the river in Post Falls in 1986. Although he sold it to the Red Lion chain, he maintains an office there. He will turn 89 on Sept. 23. – Jesse Tinsley