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History
The
Bi Metallic Building, home of the Oasis Rooms, began its
existence in 1895 as a hotel and saloon. At that time,
Wallace was largely a cedar swamp, a fact attested to by
stumps visible in a crawl space under the building’s
northern end. |
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Burnt cedar stump - a casualty of the
1910 fire - still visible in the crawl space under the Bi
Metallic Building
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The Bi Metallic is one of few structures in Wallace to survive the famous 1910 fire. Of particular interest are its mosaic-sized floor tiles, imported from China and laid one by one in a simple pattern. |
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| It is uncertain when the Bi Metallic
Saloon/Hotel became the Oasis Rooms. In the world’s
richest silver mining district, at a time when the men
outnumbered the women nearly 200 to 1, one business may
simply have become more profitable that the other. |
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| The Oasis was hardly a unique establishment, being one of five such brothels along the town’s main street. Each business sported a neon sign advertising “rooms”—one wonders how many unwary travelers had to be told that these particular rooms were hardly places to rest! |  |
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| For years the brothels operated without
hindrance, until in 1973 a Boise Statesman article
charged that a politician had agreed to go easy on law
enforcement in North Idaho in exchange for a $25,000
campaign contribution. By the time the article was in
print, Wallace’s brothels were closed. But not
unmourned. At halftime during a University of Idaho
football game, students unfurled a 40-foot-long banner
bearing the plea: “Give Wallace Back Its
Houses.”
The Lux Rooms, the Jade Rooms, the Arment Rooms, and the U & I Rooms no longer exist. Only the Oasis Rooms have been preserved just as they were. |
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