Top of the Hoff

Buckle up! Since I already used my only personal experience with the Hoff Building in my last newsletter, I’m going to have to get a little more “history heavy” this week. The Hoff Building was built in 1930 as Boise’s first skyscraper and was originally the Hotel Boise, built to rival both the Idanha and the Owyhee. I really do wish we had old reviews from the Karens of the 20’s and 30’s on their hotel stays...

Anyways, eventually the Hotel Boise was sold, renamed the Hoff Building, and renovated into offices with the Crystal Ballroom and a penthouse on top that was once the Radio Room and Top of the Hoff Restaurant and Lounge. As this perfectly replicated matchbook invites you to “Dine Above the Rest,” we at Boise OG invite you to add this week’s design to your carefully curated collection of things lost but not forgotten.

Oh! I did think of a memory about the Hoff Building that I didn’t share... While working as an awkward 16 year old receptionist for the Idaho Hospital Association in the Hoff Building, all the adults—which would be everyone except me—were leaving for some week-long meeting out of town. There was this very peculiar woman who worked in the office directly behind my desk. She was hired after me, and seemed to know even less about her job than I did mine. Before they all left for the meeting she asked me if I was nervous to be working there all by myself while they were gone. I said no (honestly I hadn’t really thought about it), and then she told me that the building was haunted. I didn’t know at the time that every old building in Boise was haunted... So then I was worried!!! Luckily, as an afterthought my boss told me on her way out that I didn’t need to come in while they were gone. Which is kind of too bad because that story would have been a lot better had I spent a week alone there... Sorry not sorry.

At least it’s not snowing.

—Heidi