A historic honor for Deary Garage building, home to Pie Safe Bakery and Kitchen

The building housing a Deary bakery was added to the National Register of Historic Places this month.

The Deary Garage building, now home to the Pie Safe Bakery and Kitchen at 307 Main St., is the newest Latah County addition to the registry.

The bakery joins numerous other rural Latah County buildings with designation including the Bovill Opera House, Genesee Exchange Bank, Bank of Juliaetta, Kendrick Downtown Historic district, Kendrick Fraternal Temple, the Troy Downtown Historic District and more. The complete list is available online at history.idaho.gov/nrhp.

Hayley Noble, the Latah County Historical Society executive director and member of the Latah County Preservation Commission, said the addition to the list is mostly honorary.

“The owners are historically minded so it’s nice to see them being honored in this way,” Noble said.

The registry recognizes properties that have significance to the community, state or nation’s history either through design or association with important individuals. Locations added can receive some federal assistance for historic preservation or tax benefits, depending on the owner’s wants, Noble said.

Being listed, Noble said, does not come with requirements about what the owners do or don’t do with their property. Submissions can be done individually or by a larger organization. The paperwork can take a while to complete and the commission contracts it out each time, she said.

For the Deary Garage property, which now houses the bakery, the paperwork was filled out by Diana Painter, an architectural historian out of Spokane. She would come to Deary and gather historical documents and photos about how the building has played into the town’s past.

It was built in 1926 and has a concrete foundation, brick veneer and a flat-top roof. It was built after a fire which burned through most of the business district, according to the nomination paperwork. It was Deary’s first modern all-inclusive garage and had automobile repair, supplies and gasoline.

John French, owner of the Pie Safe Bakery and Kitchen, said they were pleased to be added to the list, but it won’t change how it runs from day to day.

“It’s a great statement for our community and our county,” French said.

He said he wasn’t very involved in the process, but he did come to a few meetings and talked with the contractor about some of the building’s history. The commission did 98% of the work, French said, and was happy to help.

“It’s an honor to have a building in Deary on the register,” Noble said.

The bakery is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Friday and from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. It is also the main kitchen for Brush Creek Creamery.

Nelson can be reached at knelson@dnews.com.