The Haunted Idanha Hotel, Boise: Presidents, a Murder Trial and a Restless Elevator

The Idanha stands at the corner of 10th and Main in downtown Boise, a red brick French chateau with round corner turrets and pointed roofs that looks like nothing else in the city. For most of the 20th century it was Boise’s grandest hotel. Since the 1970s its upper floors have been apartments, with restaurants and a bar at street level and in the basement.

It is also the most storied haunted building in downtown Boise. Residents and staff have described doors that lock themselves, blankets pulled off sleepers and an elevator that travels on its own, and older tales speak of a murdered bellboy and a woman buried under the basement floor. This guide sets the documented history beside the stories and explains how to see the building.

History of the Idanha Hotel

Boise was a small railroad town when the Idanha was planned in 1900 to serve travelers arriving on the branch line from Nampa. Architect Walter S. Campbell designed it in the French chateau style, with turrets and a mansard roof, and it cost about $125,000. It opened on January 1, 1901, and at its height it was the tallest building in Idaho, with the state’s first elevator and a lobby large enough for inaugural balls. Rooms cost about $2 to $4 a night.

Its guest list was the best in the state. Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Benjamin Harrison all stayed during visits to Boise, and later accounts add William Jennings Bryan and the pioneer Polly Bemis. In 1907 the hotel filled with lawyers, reporters and witnesses for the trial of union leader Big Bill Haywood, accused of ordering the murder of former governor Frank Steunenberg; Clarence Darrow led the defense. The confessed bomber, Harry Orchard, had earlier planned an attack on Steunenberg from the Idanha before calling it off and killing him in Caldwell. Senator William Borah later gave a speech from the hotel after his own acquittal in a land fraud case.

The hotel also saw tragedy. In 1921 Alexander Palmer Jacobs, a Kuna farmer and the son of Boise pioneer Cyrus Jacobs, checked into a fourth-floor room late one night, made a series of calls, and at dawn climbed out of the window and jumped to his death in front of two passing waitresses. Rick Just, who has written about Idaho history for decades, retold the story as an overlooked chapter of the building’s past.

Like most downtown hotels, the Idanha faded after the war. In the 1970s its upper floors were converted into Victorian-style apartments, with little remodeling since beyond carpet, paint and fixtures, and the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Local shops, restaurants and the 10th Street Station bar fill the street level and basement today, and residents are known to stay for decades.

The ghosts of the Idanha

The elevator that runs itself

The Idanha’s most famous ghost story is about its elevator, the oldest in Idaho. Residents and staff describe it moving between floors with nobody aboard, often stopping at the fourth floor, and moans that seem to rise from the shaft. Rick Just points out that the elevator is very old and often out of order, which may explain some of it.

The bellboy

The story usually told to explain the elevator is of a bellboy shot by a guest in the late 1970s, who is said to have then killed himself in the hotel. The bellboy is said to keep running the lift. We could not find a contemporary record of the shooting, so treat it as part of the building’s legend.

The woman under the basement

An older story says that in the early 1900s a man stabbed his wife with a pair of scissors and buried her beneath the basement floor, and that her spirit lingers on the second floor or in the basement. Construction workers renovating the building in the early 1970s also reported strange experiences. We found no record of the murder.

What residents describe

Wikipedia’s summary of the building notes that residents and staff have reported activity for decades, mostly on the third and fourth floors: kitchenware flying off shelves, blankets pulled off people in bed, doors that open, shut and unlock themselves, curtains moving without a breeze, misty figures and whispering.

The 1921 death

Unlike the bellboy and the buried wife, the death of Alexander Jacobs is a matter of history, recounted in detail by Rick Just. It is rarely mentioned in ghost write-ups of the Idanha, but it is the one tragedy at the hotel that we can confirm.

Where to look

• The elevator: the state’s oldest, said to travel on its own to the fourth floor.
• The third and fourth floors: where most residents’ reports come from; private apartments.
• The basement: linked to the legend of the buried wife; now a bar and businesses.
• The corner of 10th and Main: the best view of the turrets, especially lit at night.

Visiting the Idanha

The Idanha’s upper floors are private apartments, so you cannot tour the hallways or ride the elevator unless you know a resident. You can go into the businesses at street level and the bar in the basement, and the corner of 10th and Main gives the best view of the building, especially after dark when the turrets are lit.

The Boise Ghosts walking tour includes the Idanha on its one hour downtown route, which starts at The Owyhee two blocks west and also passes the Egyptian Theatre. It runs most nights and is the easiest way to hear the stories on the spot.

• Visiting Private apartments upstairs; the ground-floor and basement businesses are open to the public
• Tours Included on the Boise Ghosts downtown walking tour

Tips for your visit

• Take the Boise Ghosts tour for the stories, then come back for a drink in the basement bar.
• Photograph the building from the opposite corner of 10th and Main after dark.
• Respect the residents: do not try to get into the lobby or hallways.
• Pair it with the Old Idaho Penitentiary for Boise’s two biggest haunted names in one day.

More haunted places nearby

• The Owyhee, Boise: the Idanha’s 1910 rival, two blocks west
• The Old Idaho Penitentiary: the sandstone prison east of downtown
• Haunted hotels in Idaho: haunted places where you can still book a room
• Haunted places in Idaho
• Haunted places in Boise

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• Wikipedia: Idanha Hotel
• Idaho Architecture Project: Idanha Hotel
• Rick Just, Speaking of Idaho: Nominating a ghost
• Mix 106: Presidents and other elites used to stay at this Boise hotel
• Boise Mom: 6 local ghostly legends
• LocalWiki Boise: Idanha Hotel
• BoiseDev: Haunted history and ghost tours (Oct 2025)