Fire damages historic Kalispell building that houses printing firm

By LYNNETTE HINTZE

The Daily Inter Lake

A Monday morning fire at Scott Publishing Co. in Kalispell damaged the front office of the business housed in a portion of the elaborate 1895 carriage house that once accompanied the Conrad Mansion.

The Kalispell Fire Department responded to the fire at 393 N. Main St. at 8:55 a.m. for a report of smoke. The first unit arrived within four minutes of the initial dispatch and immediately requested 911 dispatch to upgrade the call to a structure fire, according to a press release from the fire department.

No one was injured in the fire, and damage was contained to the room of origin, the office area where Scott Publishing’s computers were housed. The fire department reported moderate smoke damage throughout the building. The cause of the blaze and extent of the damage is still under investigation, but officials said the fire was “electrical in nature.”

Scott Publishing Co. has been a mainstay in the Kalispell business community since 1984. Owners Scott and Elaine Graber told the Inter Lake Monday afternoon they are regrouping after the fire and expected to be open for business today using the printing press area of the facility as temporary office quarters.

Scott Graber said he had stopped at the business between 6:30 and 7 a.m. Monday, then left for about an hour. When he returned he saw a lot of smoke in the building; shortly after that he saw smoke and flames coming out of both the main floor and the second story where other offices are located.

“All of our computers were fried,” Graber said early Monday afternoon. “I’ll be ordering more computers this afternoon. We’ll be up and running again” shortly.

He said he’s already contacted a builder who will assess the damage so restoration of the historic building can begin.

Elaine Graber said she’s thankful the historic structure is still standing.

“We lost all those beautiful original windows,” she said.

Many local residents may not realize that the Conrad carriage house was split into five pieces and relocated from the Conrad Mansion grounds in 1928.

The quest to find those five pieces of the carriage house was part of local artist Maura Morberg’s undertaking in 2007 as she studied old photographs and then painted the carriage house, recreating a scene that included members of the Conrad family on horseback.

It’s commonly known that the home with the turret just north of Conrad Mansion, at 244 Woodland Ave., is one piece of the carriage house, but it took some legwork by Morberg to track down the rest of the carriage house.

In addition to the carriage house segment that houses Scott Publishing, other parts of the massive building were turned into homes, two in the 600 block of Third Street East and another on Fifth Avenue East.

Spokane architect Kirtland Cutter designed both the mansion and the carriage house. Charles and Alicia Conrad moved into the mansion in 1895, and after Charles Conrad died in 1902, Alicia continued to live there until 1923. Morberg speculated that Alicia’s finances were dwindling by the time Alonzo J. Dean, president of the local Chamber of Commerce, purchased the stable complex in 1928 and had it disassembled and broken into home-sized pieces.

Elaine said she and Scott were impressed with the quick response from local firefighters.

Kalispell Fire Department was assisted by Evergreen and Smith Valley fire departments, Kalispell Police and Braveheart Chaplaincy. A total of 16 firefighters were needed to control the incident, the Kalispell Fire Department said. The northbound lanes of U.S. 93 and East Oregon Street were closed for approximately an hour.

“We’re insured,” Elaine said. “We just want to get up and going, so we’ll set up in our press room.”

News Editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.