COVER STORY: ‘A lighthouse’


The house on the corner of Ash and River is the only single-family home left on the block, but the legacy of one woman who lived there is one that will last more than a lifetime. The Erma Hayman House is a historic site and cultural center that “preserves, contextualizes, and interprets the history of Boise’s River Street Neighborhood,” according to the website. 

“By 1940, housing discrimination had made River Street home to the majority of Boise’s Black residents. Most structures from the early days of the River Street neighborhood have been lost. Like so many areas populated by immigrants, Black Americans, and members of the working class, their stories have been largely omitted from standard historical narrative, necessitating the preservation of the Hayman House and the history of this treasured community.”


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