This
story is NOT about Keith “THE MOOSE OF THE PALOUSE,” Lincoln, who lives in Pullman.
But, it is about a MOOSE on the Palouse…
in this case the Moose Lodge in downtown Pullman. Photos from Google Maps.
….
Moose
Lodge leaving historic building
Community
members hope building will be restored by new owner
By
Anthony Kuipers, Moscow Pullman Daily News
July
the 28th of 2018 Updated July 30, 2018
Moose Lodge leaving historic building
The
Moose Lodge building on Kamiaken Street in Pullman has been around for about a
century, but its future is unclear as the lodge plans to move to a new
location.
"Our
(member) numbers have shrunk to the point where we can't utilize a building
that large," said Randy Crowner, Moose Lodge governor.
Crowner
said the organization, which he estimates consists of about 95 men and 100
women at the moment, is looking for a smaller building to call home. He said it
has agreed with a potential purchaser on price for the current
5,625-square-foot building and is negotiating a closing deal. He hopes to close
by mid-August, but the Moose Lodge could remain in the building for a few more
months.
The
aging two-story, bright red brick building that was once a hotel has seen
better days aesthetically, but Crowner hopes the new owners will find the
beauty in the historic building.
"I
would like to see it restored to its original grace," he said.
He is
not alone.
Phil
Gruen cherishes the building's long history and hopes the new owners will
cherish it as well.
Gruen
is an associate professor of architecture at Washington State University and a
member of the Pullman Historic Preservation Commission. He said Pullman's long
history of having a large transient population led to the creation of several
local hotels during the last century, many of which have disappeared over the
years. That is what makes the Moose Lodge building so special, he said.
"It's
the oldest surviving building that had accommodations for out-of-towners,"
Gruen said.
The
building was initially used as a medical office for Charles H. Russell starting
in 1915. As his practice grew, he expanded it into a two-story building and
around 1919 converted it into the Russell Hotel.
Other
hotels from that era - Hotel Pullman, Artesian Hotel and the Washington Hotel -
were either demolished or burned down.
In
1953, the Moose Lodge took over the building and has been operating there for
65 years. The building's ties to both the Moose Lodge and Russell Hotel make it
an important part of Pullman's fabric, Gruen said.
"The
layers of significance, they're all embedded together," he said.
Ned
Warnick, chair of the Historic Preservation Commission, said the building is
not listed on either national or local historic registers, and there have been
fears in the past of it being torn down if sold.
"I
cannot speak for the commission as a whole but I would hope that someone can
find a use for the building by refurbishing it," he wrote in an email.
Gruen
said while it may not be the most aesthetically pleasing building in its
current condition, work could be done to improve its look while maintaining its
historic feel. He believes that would still be a better, more cost-effective
solution than tearing it down.
"I
think it's worth saving," he said.
:::
From
Vince Grippi 8/2/2018 Spokane S-R
A GRIP
ON SPORTS • Somewhere in the Latin roots of the word August there must be a
shirttail relationship to another word: smoke. They seem to come to us together
most every year. Read on.
• It is
the first day of the month named after Rome’s most glorious emperor. And we
awoke this morning with watery eyes, a tickle in the nose and a red sunrise.
It’s smoke season. And it’s joined-at-the-hip friend, football preseason.
Rarely
has a year gone by lately without wildfires throughout the Northwest injecting tough-to-breath
particulates into the air and forcing football coaches from youth to college to
become amateur meteorologists in their spare time.
Washington
State and Idaho open practice on Friday. Eastern starts Sunday. Luckily, the
smoke experts see air quality improving before then. And, due to an expected
cooling trend, staying pretty clean through the beginning of the high school
practice season.
…….
As
college football prepares to kick off a new season, a new kickoff rule has people
talking
By David Wharton, LA Times/Los Ange Jul 31,
2018 at 12:15 PM Pacific Daylight Time
It
isn’t hard to fathom why Deebo Samuel likes returning kicks.
Just
watch highlight video of the South Carolina star flashing a quick move,
breaking free and finding another gear as he sprints down the sideline. Three
times in the last two seasons, he has raced the length of the field for
touchdowns.
So when
Samuel was asked about college football’s new kickoff rule, he ducked his head
and laughed.
“I
mean, we didn’t really pay that no attention,” he said. “Because I don’t think
we’re going to be fair-catching any kick returns.”
This
season, a fair catch anywhere inside the 25-yard line will be treated as a
touchback, with officials blowing their whistles and automatically placing the
ball at the 25.
NCAA
leaders are hoping to discourage returns, taking the sting out of a play that
can be electrifying but produces an outsized share of concussions. Think about
it — when you have 11 defenders charging downfield, high-speed collisions are
inevitable.
Reaction
to the change has been mixed.
Though
injuries, especially those to the head, remain a major concern, coaches and returners
must now wrestle with a new kind of decision over when to stay and when to go.
Kickers might need to change their strategy, too.
Purists
have a broader concern. They worry about fundamentally altering the game.
“I
think it’s a precursor to doing away with kickoffs altogether,” Utah coach Kyle
Whittingham said, adding “the normal kickoff return is going to become a
dinosaur.”
A few
weeks have passed since North Carolina coach Larry Fedora declared: “I believe
the game is under attack.”
Speaking
to reporters at the Atlantic Coast Conference media days, Fedora questioned
widely accepted studies that link concussions to a degenerative brain disease
known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
“I
blame a groundswell of data that is tweaked one way or the other,” he said.
Fedora
also denounced adjustments to the rule book.
“I fear
that the game will get pushed so far to one extreme that you won’t recognize
the game 10 years from now,” he said. “That’s what I worry about. And I do
believe that if it gets to that point, that our country goes down, too.”
College
football quickly shot back, ACC Commissioner John Swofford insisting “we have
to respect the science.” At Florida Atlantic, coach Lane Kiffin said, “The
changes in the game that continue to come are going to help people’s concerns”
about CTE.
NFL statistics
have shown that concussions are five times more likely on kickoffs than on the
average play, a league executive told ESPN last spring. Independent studies
have similarly found a higher incidence of severe injuries.
“Plays
that result in a touchback, there’s still blocking going on, but the injury
rate on kickoffs comes down significantly,” said Steve Shaw, head of
officiating for the Southeastern Conference.
As one
of the oldest and most basic plays in football, the kickoff is delineated in
rule books dating to the late 1800s. It has been adjusted numerous times since
then, with the tee moved from midfield to the 40-yard line, then to the 30.
Before
the 2012 season, concerned NCAA officials reversed this trend by moving kicks
to the 35 so more balls might sail through the end zone. They put touchbacks
into play at the 25 instead of the 20.
Last
spring, the Playing Rules Oversight Panel announced the further modification
“in hopes of making the play safer.”
The
practical effects might seem minimal, shifting the starting point of an ensuing
drive a few yards in either direction, but coaches tend to obsess over such
minutiae.
Speedy
returners might be instructed to gamble and, conversely, teams that struggle
with returns “will probably fair catch as many balls as they can,” said Georgia
Tech coach Paul Johnson, whose Yellow Jackets averaged only 19 yards a return
last season.
The
choice ultimately rests with players who aren’t accustomed to raising a hand
unless they are standing deep in the end zone. They need to “be schooled up
when to make that fair catch, how to do it,” Whittingham said.
“If you
have a ball that hangs up pretty good, drops at the five-yard line, do you want
to give that guy a chance to get the ball in his hands or do you want to take
the safe play and put it on the 25?” the coach asked.
This
uncharted territory has people in and around the game wondering what might
happen in the fall. Echoing a widespread sentiment, Washington State coach Mike
Leach expects that kickers will try to force returns with squibs and low line
drives.
“I’m
kind of curious how it goes,” Leach said. “I think you’ll see a lot more kicks
on the ground.”
Fiddling
with the kickoff doesn’t bother Duke coach David Cutcliffe.
“We’re
going to continue, if we’re smart, to see the game morph,” Cutcliffe said. “I’m
excited to see what the future brings as opposed to these people that want to
act like it’s doomsday.”
At
Stanford, coach David Shaw said he and many of his colleagues still love the
play and its capacity for thrilling, open-field runs. He characterized the new
rule as “an attempt to see how can we salvage this.”
Much
will depend on the next few months. Will the change, like those that came
before, reduce injuries?
“We’ll
have to see the results … to see what’s best for the health of our players and
the health of the game,” Shaw said.
Some
returners appear to have already made up their minds. Fedora’s top guy, Anthony
Ratliff-Williams, ranked 12th in the nation with an average of 26.3 yards last
season.
“Definitely
when I get the opportunity to return it, I’m definitely trying to go for six,”
the junior said. “I feel like any returner in the country would do the same.”
Even
though Samuel’s 2017 season was cut short by a fractured leg — on a pass play —
he affected the first two games on kickoffs.
In the
opener against North Carolina State, he ran 97 yards to the end zone. The next
week, at Missouri, he broke another return for a second-quarter score that
Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp called “a huge momentum swing in the game.”
Heading
into summer camp, a fully recovered Samuel is looking forward to his next
chance at making something happen.
“Every
time I see the ball kicked off the tee, I’m wondering,” he said. “I’m like,
where’s the hole going to be that I’m going to see the crease and score another
touchdown?”
Nothing
in the rule book, it seems, can change that.
