COEUR d'ALENE - The sitting room near the entrance of 315 Wallace Ave. is warm and inviting, complete with antique and vintage-style furniture and a cozy fire crackling in the fireplace.

But the true warmth and welcoming spirit of the Greenbriar Inn comes from Kris McIlvenna, who has owned and operated the historic inn with her husband, Bob, for 31 years.

Kris is a true innkeeper - she creates special bonds with her guests and goes beyond what is necessary to make them feel at home. Her kindness and sense of helping others does not stop with the Greenbriar. She has extended her arms in support of countless charities and nonprofit organizations in the community through the years, including St. Vincent de Paul, North Idaho Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for children, Hospice, Art on the Edge and more. Just recently, the Greenbriar's 315 Martinis and Tapas restaurant won best drink and appetizer awards at the Bartender's Ball, an event to raise funds for the nonprofit H.E.L.P (Help Every Little Paw) which strives for the health and happiness of animals.

"If you're going to be a part of a small town, you really have to give back, you really do, or you're really not a part of it," Kris said.

Her favorite book, My ntonia by Willa Cather, has served as a model for how she lives her life and keeps her world in a humble perspective.

"It describes the lives of the women and men that basically farmed this country and whenever I'm having a bad day, I realize it's nothing compared to their bad days," she said. "It's such an inspiration because it talks about how they supported their communities, however small they were, to survive and to prosper. It's a real classic. It's all about cooperation and reciprocation."

Even her favorite film, 'Blade Runner,' provides a deep meaning that reminds her of some of the more important principles of humanity.

"Although it's really complex and there's a lot of ugliness in it, in the end the human spirit and love triumph over rather incredible odds, and I enjoy that ending," she said. "It's also something that's a lesson for all of us to look beyond our prejudices and our fears and our dislikes or hatreds and go to the next level."

Caring for others, giving guests a home away from home and knowing how to have fun in the process are what make Kris not just the innkeeper of the Greenbriar, but an innkeeper of the community.

What motivated you to open the Greenbriar and why did you get into the bed-and-breakfast business?

In 1984, at that time, I was a stock broker in Boulder, Colo. My husband and I were both stock brokers and we had traveled in Europe, largely in Britain and in Scotland, and we'd stay at bed and breakfasts there, and I really loved the experience. It was a way to get to know the people and the country in a way that I had never done before. At that time, bed and breakfasts weren't really well known in this country, so it stuck with me. When I found out I was pregnant with my second child, I decided not to stay in brokerage anymore because I was commuting between Boulder and Seattle every other week, managing a total of 60 brokers because we owned two offices. I thought that was no way to raise an infant. So we sold our businesses and decided to move out here where we have some relatives. I made the decision before we moved here that I'd like to buy a building that would allow me to do something at home with my children, raise them and still be involved in a business. And because the experience with bed and breakfast was still so fresh in my mind, I thought I'd really enjoy that.

I enjoy cooking, I enjoy entertaining, I enjoyed a lot of the aspects that were already present in b-and-b, and I found this place in the Coeur d'Alene Press while I was still in Boulder and Bob flew out. That was a decision that I made that I thought would be a 5-year business that turned into a 30-year business.

How do you think the bed-and-breakfast industry has changed in those 30 years?

It's not just how has it changed, it's also how has it changed the hospitality industry. There is a correlation. When we first opened the b-and-b, we learned very quickly that anyone staying at a bed-and-breakfast would expect their own bathroom. Because we'd been traveling in Europe, nobody had a private bath there, so we began to upgrade. Americans are very much more particular than Europeans are about their food and their accommodations, so from the very beginning I stressed gourmet breakfast. And within three years all of our guest rooms had private baths. As the bed-and-breakfast industry has grown, it's become more luxurious, I would say. People's expectations of a b-and-b is that you go way beyond the standard hotel experience. You expect to know the innkeeper, you expect to have some kind of a personal relationship with either the innkeeper or their staff to make a truly exceptional b-and-b stay. Those people are supposed to know something about their community so they can communicate that to their guests. Conversely, the bed-and-breakfast industry changed the hotel industry. How many hotels do you know now that don't offer some kind of breakfast? When we first started, none of the hotels, none of the motels offered anything complimentary. So they've changed the travel industry substantially. But I think what I've seen most is that b-and-b's have really upgraded their offerings to include sometimes dinners, special treats, wine and cheese hours, just making it a complete package. It has changed a lot.

Can you tell me a little bit about the history of the Greenbriar building?

It was built by Harvey and Carrie Davey. He was a bricklayer from Sandpoint and he came down to Coeur d'Alene in 1908, that was a boom time. There were 10,000 people in Coeur d'Alene at that time. His intention was to build on a commercial scale down here and his wife had always wanted a boarding house, so he built on a boarding house scale. There were eight bedrooms upstairs. Actually, originally there were only five, and on the third floor there was a dance studio for ballroom dance. In the early part of the 20th century, people typically used the third floor of a large public house as a dance area. The Clark House has a similar thing ... Those old buildings frequently had a place for public recreation, and ballroom dance is what people did. After World War I, our GIs came back, they were looking for a different lifestyle altogether, in the early part of the 1920s, that's when it became quite common for people to go out to speakeasies and dance halls where they served alcohol. The entire 1920s was characterized by no ballroom dancing, the flapper era, where you went out drinking and dancing, so the third floor here in this building became three more apartments. And then in '28 the Daveys sold the place. They sold it to the mayor's mistress; she ran it as a bordello for 10 years. Then in the '40s it was owned by the Northern Pacific Railroad. Their executives stayed in this building while they were building through Coeur d'Alene. In the '50s it was owned by a private family and they rented it out to largely single males, and it was called the Wallace Apartments. In the '60s, Health, Education and Welfare owned it and they had 14 different offices ... In the '70s it was purchased by the Tridentine Church, which was a radical spinoff of the Catholic Church and people in this area knew them as the 'Blue Army' because of the blue habits that they wore. It eventually was left vacant in the early '80s by them and was taken back by the previous owner, and that's where we entered the picture.

Do you think this place is haunted?

I believe so, but there are no evil spirits here. It's a very protected environment. There is definitely an energy here.

What is one of your favorite memories of your 30-plus years with the Greenbriar?

The people. I got an email a couple years ago from a woman whose last name is Davey and she had just discovered her grandfather on our website. She had never really known anything about Mr. Davey, so she started researching him and found our website, which mentioned that he was the builder here. A year later, she wrote and said that the entire Davey clan from the East Coast wanted to come out here and visit. So for a week they stayed here and we got to know them really well. It was a weird connection because they didn't know anything about Idaho, they never even thought about it really, and then to find that they had family here, and while they were here they researched some more, but it was kind of funny because this house connected me to a whole other family, a whole other set of experiences and them to us, so that was a really cool experience.

I saw that you had Wildbeary Huckleberry Products. How long did you own it? And why huckleberries?

We bought it in 2001 and sold it in 2013. It wasn't originally my choice. We ended up buying a company out of Spokane, she was a huckleberry producer, she talked me into it. It seemed like it was unique, it was a really unique product line, and I thought that we could build on it with our catering background, and actually we did, we went from five products to over 28 products, so we expanded the line, expanded the business from a $30,000 business to over-$200,000-a-year business. Then my production manager bought it from me. It was expanding to the point that it was either move it away or shut it down. Because the restaurant's here and we were busy with catering it was really difficult to consider moving it away because then I'd have to monitor two different locations and I couldn't see doing that.

Did you pick the huckleberries yourself?

No, we'd go through thousands of pounds a year. No way.

Do you have a special huckleberry dish that you can make?

Yes, we have our huckleberry sweet and sour meatballs that are on our dinner menu. Those are amazing. A lot of people come in just for that. It's a signature catering dish as well.

People recognize you have a heart for nonprofits and that you do a lot in the community. What drives you to support local charities and do you have one that is particularly special to you?

Yeah, I'd have to say that Hospice is my all-time favorite because they'd been involved in both my parents' last days and they were amazing, they did an amazing job, and I like the concept behind Hospice too. I've always been a big supporter, but I learned early on, after I opened the b-and-b, that in a small community it's really important to be more than just a business in that community. You have to participate in it to survive in it. And there are so many organizations in this town that help other people, it's disproportionate. I've lived in other cities that are much bigger and that don't have the resources that Coeur d'Alene has. The reason we have these resources is because people are willing to volunteer something. If you're going to be a part of a small town, you really have to give back, you really do, or you're really not a part of it.

What is your next community venture?

This September, we're planning an event through St. Vincent de Paul that's a fundraiser for disabled children. We're just in the planning stages, but it should be pretty large, and we're hoping to have that held at the Jewett House here in town. That's one that I know of for sure. And I think we're also going to do another event for the Cotton Classic, which is a fundraiser for Meals on Wheels, and that's usually at The Resort but I think this time it'll be held in Spokane. Those are two that are coming up.

If you had one wish for our community, what would it be?

What I'd like right now is for less division. I see so much division, people arguing back and forth politically, and it really hurts me. I would like to see us cooperate as a community rather than as identifiable political entities, I don't like that, it's polarizing, and I'd like to see more across-the-board cooperation. It's not just our community, but it filters down to this community. What we see on a national level filters down to a local level and I don't see any real good coming out of that.