The Patchy Origins of Moscow's Charming Downtown

This article first appeared in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News "Nearby History" column on April 11, 2026.

By Hayley Noble, Executive Director

View looking south through Moscow's downtown, ca. 1960. LCHS Photo: 01-02-043.

Today, Moscow’s downtown corridor is one of our community’s treasures, enjoyed by many with local shopping, dining, farmers market, and Fest City opportunities. Main street’s tree-lined wide sidewalks, old buildings, and dead-ended 4^th Street create a walkable, charming, downtown center that welcomes tourists and locals alike. But newcomers may not know that that was not always the case.

Highway 95 through Moscow looking north, ca. 1970. LCHS Photo: 01-02-169.

Main Street’s start was like many small towns in the region. Dirt roads with horse and buggies flocked to the town’s commercial center, where shoppers could get anything and everything they needed at the downtown storefronts. Downtown roads were paved in 1912 and the town continued to grow throughout the twentieth century, and downtown was the retail center of the area. By the 1940s and 50s cars dominated Moscow’s streets and gas stations were on almost every corner. The state’s major north-south Highway 95 ran right through the middle of town. By the 1960s, 4^th Street was already a dead-end, but heavier traffic impacted pedestrians. Looking at photos from the 1960s and 70s, it doesn’t even look like the same place. By the mid-1960s, the city began discussing rerouting Highway 95 to mitigate heavy traffic, improve pedestrian safety, and revitalize downtown.   

Downtown Moscow, ca. 1970. LCHS Photo: 01-02-147.

Then in the late 1970s, two major shopping centers came to town, driving commercial businesses away from Main Street: the Palouse Empire mall opened in 1976, and the Moscow Mall, now known as Eastside Marketplace, opened in 1978. By this time, the major businesses operating downtown were restaurants and bars, and business slowed due to these other shopping centers. In 1972, The Argonaut reported 15 bars in Moscow alone catering to both UI and WSU students. Main Street was littered with drinking establishments, and more than one recollection described Moscow as a little seedy. The revitalization plans would also, ideally, retain businesses that were relocating elsewhere and clean up the downtown corridor.  

Moscow Chamber of Commerce ambassadors raise their canes as the last semi-truck rumbled through downtown, Jul. 15, 1981. LCHS Photo: 01-02-363.

However, these plans would spur decades of construction and strife for the City as they worked to complete the Highway 95 couplet in phases. Those construction phases spanned the 80s and 90s and would not see completion until 2000 due to funding cycles. In preparation of the couplet, Art Crossler sold his “New” Idaho Hotel to the Idaho Department of Transportation to be razed in 1977. It originally stood at the intersection of A and Main Streets, across from the Corner Club. Phase One work began in early 1981 and traffic was diverted around Main Street to Jackson Street for northbound cars, and Washington Street for southbound. The South Idaho Press noted at the time that downtown construction was reminiscent of World War I trenches as the Main Street renovation project was underway to reduce four lanes of traffic to two.

The "New" Idaho Hotel on the left, Aug. 1944. LCHS Photo: 01-02-145.06.

The “New” Idaho Hotel was not the only casualty to the couplet. In 1990, the New Life Bible Fellowship Church and the front part of the Corner Club were demolished to finish the north section of the couplet beginning in 1991. These additional phases eliminated sharp turns that large trucks had difficulty managing and smoothed out the one-way directional issues. The traffic frustrations were worth the headaches with the north Main Street modifications completed in the early 1990s, and the south Main Street couplet finished in 2000. Twenty-five years later, the downtown revitalization and traffic rerouting seem to have paid off with a space that feels people- focused according to Ivar Nelson. Parking can still be challenging, and traffic seems to do nothing but increase, but those plans laid out in the 1970s have created a downtown community that is a treasure on the Palouse. 

1982 Gem of the Mountains, pg. 35. https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/gem/items/uidaho_gem_1982.html.

Sources

“City Talks Will Focus on Couplet,” The Spokane Chronicle, Nov. 19, 1979. https://www.newspapers.com/image/564944072/?match=1&terms=%22Highway%2095%22%20Moscow%20couplet.

Gem of the Mountains 1982 | Gem of the Mountains

Goetsch, Lara. “1^st traffic flows through Moscow couplet,” Idahonian/The Daily News, Jul. 10, 1991. Moscow-Pullman Daily News - Google News Archive Search.

“Highway Department Wants Citizen Response,” Lewiston Morning Tribune, Nov. 3, 1972. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZoJfAAAAIBAJ&lpg=PA8&dq=Moscow%20Idaho%20Highway%2095%20couplet&pg=PA8#v=onepage&q=Moscow%20Idaho%20Highway%2095%20couplet&f=false.

“Hotel Yields to Cars,” Spokane Daily Chronicle, May 27, 1977. Spokane Daily Chronicle - Google Books.

Long, Ben. “Crews start rerouting Moscow street,” Idahonian/The Daily News, Jun. 4, 1991. Moscow-Pullman Daily News - Google News Archive Search.

Long, Ben. “Roadwork ends party in half of Corner Club,” The Daily News, Dec. 7, 1990. Moscow-Pullman Daily News - Google Books.

“Moscow streets remind residents of WWI tranches,” South Idaho Press, Aug. 16, 1981. Newspapers.com.

“Moscow work will divert traffic,” Lewiston Morning Tribune, Jul. 27, 2000. Lewiston Morning Tribune - Google News Archive Search.

Spence, William L. “Moscow’s downtown vibe years in the making,” The Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Nov. 29, 2019. https://www.dnews.com/local-news-northwest/moscows-downtown-vibe-years-in-the-makingbf351c4f.

“Urges Moscow traffic plan,” Lewiston Morning Tribune, Oct. 5, 1975. Lewiston Morning Tribune - Google Books.