Eighth & Main rises above you here, an 18-story tower reaching 323 feet, the tallest building in Idaho. It houses the Idaho headquarters of Zions Bank alongside firms such as Holland & Hart LLP, Ruth's Chris Steak House, CTA Architects Engineers, First American Title Company, Clenera, LLC, and the Idaho Technology Council. Construction was completed in early 2014, and a grand opening celebration was held on February 15.
Before this tower rose, the site had sat vacant since 1987 and was known to locals as "the pit" and the "Boise Hole. Half of the top floor — the 17th Floor — is given over as the Idaho & Snake River Rooms and is available for limited public rental focused on non-profit and community-oriented events. The building's spire was changed several times after complaints that it resembled similar spires used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Long before the tower, the Overland Hotel occupied this corner from 1864 to 1904; in 1870 General William T. Sherman was a noteworthy guest, and Hosea B. Eastman purchased the hotel in 1877. Picture instead the empty pit that sat here for decades, or the Overland Hotel corner where General William T. Sherman once stayed in 1870.