In this SR file photo from 1998, then Blackwell House manager Marge Hoy is shown in front of the Bed and Breakfast place on Sherman Avenue, which was then on the market.

Bill Wendlandt is taking history head on, and he's up for the challenge. Never mind if he's never run a bed and breakfast before, he's hired an experienced hand for that. As for the legacy that comes with Wendlandt's recent purchase, the Blackwell House, the Austin, Texas, native understands what taking ownership of the historic house at 820 E. Sherman Ave. really means. Tradition. "I'll never be able to fill those shoes," Wendlandt said Monday, guiding a tour of the three-story home with a lower level whose previous owners -- the Blackwells, the Rosenberrys -- are famous names around the Lake City. "But what I can do is fill the integrity of what they built." Twenty five years ago Wendlandt first glimpsed the house when it was operating as a bed and breakfast and the commercial real estate businessman was just setting his roots as a part-time resident in Coeur d'Alene/Tom Hasslinger, Coeur d'Alene Press. More here.

DFO: The last event I attended at the Blackwell House (as a reporter) was a reception for then Idaho GOP Chairman Phil Batt in the early 1990s, when it was owned by Kathy Sims.

Question: Have you ever attended an event at the Blackwell House?

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