BOISE — Potato magnate J.R. Simplot and his wife, Esther, have given their famous hilltop home in Boise to the state of Idaho for use as Idaho's next governor's mansion.
The 7,400-square-foot home dominates the neighborhood skyline and comes with 36 acres of rolling green hills below the pine-covered mountains of the Boise National Forest.
The property, an outright gift from Simplot and his family, is valued at about $2.8 million.
"You know, when you get right down to the facts of it, Idaho has been awful good to me. Right on this hill, I built this (house), with this flag, and I love it," the 95-year-old Simplot said Tuesday, speaking from his brick driveway in below-freezing temperatures.
"I think the world of Idaho, and I'm pleased to let somebody have it like the governor. As governors go and come, they'll enjoy it, I hope. They won't have any trouble from me, that's for sure," Simplot said, to the crowd of family members, guests and lawmakers assembled for the announcement.
The signature feature of the home is the 40-foot by 30-foot American flag that flies on a pole at least 80 feet high.
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said the gift of the property came with only one condition — that a flag of that size must always be flown over the home.
"That's a promise we will be proud to make and keep," the governor told the Simplots and others gathered at Tuesday's announcement.
The state plans to do some remodeling and may add more bedrooms. Kempthorne and his wife, Patricia, will move in when the work is complete in about a year.
For all its 7,400 square feet, the Mediterranean-style home with a red tiled roof has only three bedrooms, along with four baths and two fireplaces.
During most of their residency, the Simplots lived on the first floor. A kitchen twice the size of most living rooms anchors the first level. The couple spent many of their evenings together in an adjacent family room, which commands sweeping views of the city, the Boise River Valley and the Owyhee Mountains 50 miles to the west.
Simplot lived with his wife, Esther, at the home from 1980 until March 2003, when they moved to a penthouse apartment at the Grove Hotel in downtown Boise.
During the winter, Simplot allows sledders to slide down the steep slopes of his property. In summertime, the sliders traded in their sleds for giant blocks of ice. Last August, a 14-year-old Boise girl died in what investigators called a freak accident while ice-blocking down the hill.
Kempthorne said he expected the state would not change its policy and the hill would still be available for play.
Simplot, now 95 years old, left home at age 14 and started his own business in southern Idaho shortly afterward. After making a fortune in agriculture and mining, he turned his investments to computers, getting in on the ground floor of Micron Technologies Inc.
That company is now one of the top chip manufacturers in the world, supplying memory for computers, cell phones and many other electronic devices.
This year, Simplot ranked 205th on Forbes list of the richest people in America, slipping from 177th in 2003. The magazine estimated his worth at $2.5 billion, about $500 million more that the state of Idaho's annual operating budget.
Idaho is one of a handful of states that does not have an official governor's residence.
The most recent one was 13 blocks west of the Capitol. It served five governors for more than 35 years until it was abandoned in 1987 because of plumbing, electrical and other problems.
Since then, governors have been given a stipend for housing, paid with a special fund that holds $1.5 million.
Kempthorne said he expected that fund could be combined with other private money to pay for future operational costs, and any renovations and reconfigurations.