Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Co-owner Shirley Hathaway behind the counter at the new store which sells items related to a former ski area once run by WSU.
The new store is open weekends in Palouse.
The owners of the Palouse Divide Lodge on Highway 6 above Harvard, Idaho, opened a store in Palouse Sept. 14. Offering antique furniture and wool from re-conditioned clothing to wool for crafters and weaving supplies, the store will be open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The store is located at 128 East Main, which formerly housed Gear N' Cog.
"Pretty much anything to do with wool, we do," said co-owner Shirley Hathaway, who operates the lodge and the store, named Palouse Divide Lodge Store, with husband Lane.
Items for sale in Palouse include an armoir, bedframe, chest of drawers, antique glassware and lamps, including whale oil and hanging Victorian. Much of the inventory comes from the middle to late 1800s.
When items sell, more will be brought down from space at the lodge in which inventory is kept.
The idea to start the store grew out of the wool items and supplies sold at the lodge.
"We had a lot of people drive all the way to the lodge to buy wool," Hathaway said.
The conference and retreat center at Harvard was originally built in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration for downhill skiing and ski jumping. WSU later owned and operated a ski area there until 1980, when the first private owners bought it. The Hathaways have owned it since 1999.
"We always wanted to live somewhere we could cross-country ski," said Shirley, who has had an affinity for wool going back to her childhood as a farm girl in Oaklee, Minn.
With the store now open three weeks in Palouse, reports are positive.
"It's been very busy, it's been wonderful," said Hathaway. "The (Palouse Chamber of Commerce) has been very supportive."
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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