Lava Hot Springs ยท Eastern: Lava Hot Springs

Riverside Hot Springs Inn

William Godfrey's three-story brick hot springs hotel of 1914 on the Portneuf River; book a guest room or suite, not a Riverside Duplex unit.

Built
1914Built 1912-14 as a hot springs hotel by Dempsey rancher William Godfrey; completed 1914.
Style
Colonial Revival
Type
Boutique hotel
Area
Eastern: Lava Hot Springs
Credentials
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

The story

William Godfrey, a Dempsey rancher and an early commercial claimant on the hot springs, built the Riverside between 1912 and 1914 as a grand hotel with individual mineral baths in the basement. The three-story red brick building was planned as a U, but the west wing was never finished, leaving an L. A monumental two-tiered portico faces the Portneuf River, and the lobby keeps its dark-stained woodwork and beamed ceiling. By the mid-1920s a state natatorium and sanatorium had opened across the river.

Good to know

  • No elevator
  • Address: 255 East Portneuf Street, Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246
Sources (1)

Last verified October 2026. Details change; confirm with the inn before you book.