Assay Office, Boise, Idaho

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During the first half of the 1860s, Idaho’s gold production was the third highest in the nation. Due to the difficulty of transporting bulky, heavy ores the long distance to the nearest U.S. Mint in San Francisco, there was great demand for an assaying office in Idaho. In 1869, Congress appropriated $75,000 to build the assay office. The structure, designed by Alfred B. Mullett, supervising architect for the U.S. Treasury Department, was completed in 1871. The builder was John R. McBride, Chief Justice of the Idaho Territorial Court. The exterior walls of the two story building were built of local Idaho sandstone and are more than two feet thick. The building is topped by a hip roof with a central cupola for ventilation. The landscape plantings were all donated by the citizens of Boise. For security, all of the windows were covered with iron bars and the interior doors were equipped with iron cages. The first floor of the building held the assayers offices, vaults and safes, assaying and melting rooms (furnaces), laboratory and reagents storage. The second floor was devoted to living quarters for the chief assayer. There was a parlor, pantry, dining room, kitchen and three bedrooms. The basement housed fuel and supply rooms, guards’ quarters and wells. Closed in 1933, it currently houses the State Historical Preservation Office and the Archaeological Survey of Idaho. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961. #Archaeological_Survey_of_Idaho #Boise #historic_preservation #Idaho #Idaho_State_Historical_Society #National_Historic_Landmark