Title Guaranty & Investment Co. was one of the occupants of the Rickey Block in 1912 and placed the accompanying ad on
Page 8 of the March 23, 1912 issue of The Colville Examiner. Whatever became of the company we do not know. The (second) Rickey Block, however, is still with us. The ground floor is now an antique emporium-soda fountain-lunch counter-curio shop; actually a really interesting place with a lot of antiques and local curios on display.
The First Rickey Block met its demise at the hands of explosives.
This, the second one, was built in 1892. A huge fire was raging in the town in 1892 and, in an attempt to arrest its forward progress, the Rickey Block was blown up. The attempt was successful and soon construction began on the new Rickey Block.
Situated in the downtown business district, this three storey brick building is one of the largest in the vicinity. It was the first three storey building in Colville and the largest building in the area for several years.
Its history is closely intertwined with the history of Colville, having been owned or occupied by some of the more notable of Colville's citizens and having been home to some of Colville's more memorable businesses. It has even hosted service clubs, court proceedings, school classes and town council meetings.
The building is a City, State and National Historic site, having been placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 30, 1995.
Rickey Block History
The Rickey Block still bears the name of its original builder and owner, John Rickey. Mr. Rickey was widely known as the first white settler on the Columbia River south of the Colville River and owner of the first orchard in Stevens County. Rickey arrived in 1866, while the Hudson's Bay Company was still a presence in the area. He traveled up and down the Columbia as a merchant. Mr. Rickey homesteaded near Kettle Falls in 1872, giving his name to Rickey Rapids and Rickey Creek. He also operated a steamboat that ran between Kettle Falls and Fort Spokane and briefly held a contract to supply hay to the U. S. Army post there. Rickey relocated in Colville after his appointment as County Treasurer in 1887. He was elected to the same post in 1888.
John Rickey originally planned a two-story building for this site. When these plans became public knowledge he was approached by representatives of two of the fraternal organizations so important in the social life of small western town. Both the Masonic Lodge and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows wanted to rent the upper floor for meeting rooms. Several professional men inquired about office space. In view of these demands for space, Rickey added a third story to his building. He lost the new Rickey Block in the financial "panic" of 1893, when it passed to the U. S. Savings and Loan Co.
Shortly after its construction. the Rickey Block was leased to pioneer merchant David Barman, proprietor of the Boss Store, a general merchandise outlet established by a relative of Mr. Barman's named Boss. Barman, a member of one of the many Jewish merchant families involved in commerce on the western frontier, arrived in Colville in 1887. His occupancy of the first floor continued until 1906 when Mr. Barman moved the business to his own newly-constructed building in the next block north. Until the move, the Barman family lived upstairs in the Rickey Block, probably on the third floor. Barman's store was the main mercantile outlet between Spokane and Rossland, B. C.
In 1907, Hunt's Hardware moved into the ground floor. It was purchased the same year by Stanus-Kaller Hardware, which remained there through the death of partner Stanus, a name change, thirty-seven years and two world wars. First floor tenants in the brief time between Barman's occupancy and that of the hardware store were varied but there seems to have been a steady population of professional men, organizations and lodgers in the two upper floors. From 1903 through 1944 the third floor housed lodge rooms occupied by the Masonic Lodge, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and Eagles. The northwestern room was used for dances and other social gatherings and in 1909 housed the Colville Valley Grange. For several years the two third floor front rooms housed the Superior Court which, according to the local paper, "held jurisdiction over a goodly share of northeastern Washington".
Considering that Stevens County at that time included the present areas of Ferry and Pend Oreille counties, this is hardly an understatement. Among the more sensational cases tried there was the State of Washington vs. Charles H. Cummings. Cummings, County
Chairman of the Populist Party, was tried in 1895 for the murder of Joseph Robins during a local election the previous year. The Examiner observed that "political prejudice ran high" (Colville Examiner, 1925), a situation evidenced by the Republican prosecutor's
removal of the Democratic sheriff from the case. In 1898 the prosecutor, Mr. Charles A. Mantz. who kept an office in the Rickey Block, became a Washington state Senator for a four year term.
Colville Town Council meetings were held in the third floor's northeastern rooms and it was here that the town's tax records mysteriously disappeared prior to an investigation early in this century. The third floor was also the scene of unsuccessful attempts to organize a Farmers' Union and housed the area's first venture into higher education. The short-lived Northeastern Academy was a business school founded in 1895. It survived for only one year but emphasized the need for a high school in the area. The first Colville High school was started soon after.
The second floor housed, at various times, the first Colville Public Library (1892), Spanish language classes, apartments and several offices of attorneys and other professional men. These included the law office of Carey and Johnson, whose junior partner, Lon Johnson, became Lt. Governor of Washington in 1924. Prior to his election he
served as attorney for the Colville Indian Tribe. Senior partner Daniel H. Carey served thirty years as a Superior Court Judge and was the first president of the State Association of Superior Court Judges.
The Rickey Block was purchased in 1903 by J. H. (Harry) Young, a pioneer businessman who arrived in Colville in 1885. He had extensive real estate interests, was an enthusiastic 'booster' of railroad development and the first Vice-president of the First National Bank. Mr. Young also ventured into the newspaper business, buying the
Colville Republican and changing both its name and its political orientation. He owned the building for eleven years and maintained an office there until his suicide in his first-floor office in 1914.
Mr. Young's widow, Anna, married hardware merchant Louis G, Keller, Mr. Keller came to Colville in 1907 and purchased the Hunt Hardware Co. with partners William C. Keller (his brother) and Leander Stanus. He was the first president of the Colville Chamber of Commerce, helped organize the Colville Kiwanis club and served as the city's fire chief. The Kellers are best known as the builders and owners of the Keller House, a National Register property now owned by the Stevens County Historical Society. Mr. Keller's business, Keller's Hardware, occupied the Rickey Block's first floor until 1944.
In 1944 David Barman's nephew, Louis Strauss, purchased the Rickey Block. He and his partner Larz Dannheiser retained the Barman name because of David Barman's excellent business reputation and the building became known as "Barman's" once again. The business
at that time occupied both the Rickey Block and the newer building in the next block north. The following year, at the end of World War Two, the new owners announced a program of extensive remodeling that continued through 1946. This project included the replacement of the central stair located at the front of the building with a stair near
the southwest corner and installation of the freight elevator that is still in place. The following year Dannheiser sold his interest in the business and Barman's was operated by Louis Strauss and his son Robert.
The Strauss family finally auctioned the building's contents and sold the building in 1987. It became a second hand furniture store and was acquired by the present owners in 1994.
From the National Register