Featured Stories: 68
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Spokane's Trolley Cars
The steel rails that still peek through the pavement here and there in Spokane remind us of the days of trolley cars. At one time, the tracks that lay before you carried Spokanites to work, shops,…
Mr Blandings Builds his Dream House
[Note: This location is a private residence, not open to the public.]
This Spokane home has a Hollywood pedigree. It was built to promote the 1948 film, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.…
Willie Willey: Spokane's Nature Boy: Short on clothes but long on intrigue
Short on clothes but long on intrigue, Willie Willey and his choice in dress (or lack thereof) made an impression on twentieth century Spokane. Born in 1884, Willis (Willie) Willey grew up in Iowa…
Captain Mullan: The Bombastic Little Lieutenant
From an early age, John Mullan had big visions for his future. Born in 1830 in Maryland, Mullan graduated from St John’s College in 1847, and from West Point where he studied engineering. Soon his…
snyamncut: EWU's New Residence Hall
On this spot, bordered by Eleventh and Cedar Streets, stands Eastern Washington University's newest residence hall, snyamncut. This location used to serve as a parking lot for residents of Streeter,…
The Fox Theater: MAC 100 Stories: A Centennial Exhibition
The Great Crash in December 1929 left a lasting impact on the American economy--and on Spokane. Plans by Fox West Coast Studios to build a theater had been part of Spokane gossip since 1927. The…
Hutton Settlement
Life as an orphan out on the western frontier was full of hardships. Without parents, orphans bounced around from distant relative to distant relative. It was a lonely life for most, who were often…
Hutton Building
When Levi and May Arkwright Hutton struck silver ore in 1901 at the Hercules Mine, the couple's lives dramatically changed. Both from humble beginnings, the pair met while working on railroad in…
The Great Fire of 1889
When the territory of Washington became a state in 1889, the city of Spokane Falls was one of its largest and most successful cities. Attracting wealthy businessmen who had stakes in the nearby Idaho…
"The Big Blowup:" The 1910 Fires and their Aftermath
The summer of 1910 was hot and dry in the northwestern United States. And on August 20-21 the nation would feel the fury and reach of nature's wrath.
Fires on the scale of 1910's were not unheard of…
NAACP Protests Birth of a Nation: The Racist 1915 Silent Film Provoked Controversy
Following the 1915 release of DW Griffith’s racist film “Birth of a Nation,” the NAACP mobilized across the country, including Spokane, to protest the film.
Camas on the Plateau
Every spring, many of the meadows of the eastern Washington and northern Idaho are dotted with the blue flowers of the camas plant, cammasia quamash. To the Native peoples of the Columbia Plateau…
Indian Congress
After hundreds of years of American oppression, American Indians gained the right to vote in the land they called home since time immemorial with the passing of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. …
A.K. Mozumdar and the Problem of Whiteness: A Spokane immigrant and an historic court case
The crowds who came to see Akhay Kumar Mozumdar at this church in 1916 considered him a holy man, possibly even a miracle worker. But was he white? Few today know the story of Mozumdar, or how this…
The Segregated South Hill: William H. Cowles, Jr.'s push for an all-white neighborhood
How one prominent Spokanite used racial discrimination to promote his real estate empire.
Water Power: MAC 100 Stories: A Centennial Exhibition
For nineteenth-century pioneers like James Glover, falling water represented power - the power to grind flour, to saw logs, and to build a city. These were the fundamental industrial activities in a…
Expo 74 and the Creation of Riverfront Park: MAC 100 Stories: A Centennial Exhibition
The Spokane River gorge has undergone many transformations in the last century. Don't be distracted by the roar of the falls; look at the riverfront. Until 2011, the trees, shrubs, and concrete…
Spokane’s Red Tail: Spit Fire, Jack D. Holsclaw
Born and raised in Spokane, Jack D. Holsclaw spent World War II flying as a Tuskegee airman.
Brown Industries: From Sheet Metal to Airplanes
Brown Metal Works started as a sheet metal production business but during World War 2 the Brown Brothers' passion for aviation led to shifting the companies focus.
Baxter Hospital: Mercy on a Grand Scale
Called the City of Mercy and containing more than 2000 beds this hospital was its own self-contained community.
The Evolution of Sunset Field: How the United States Military Repurposed Spokane’s Airfield
When the United States was pulled into World War Two thousands of American businesses were repurposed to better support the war effort. It was this direct response to an overseas threat that…
The Wednesday Art Club: Black Spokane's Leading Cultural Organization
The Wednesday Art Club of Spokane was much more than an art club. The African-American women-lead organization gave back to a city that did not always recognize them.
The Washington Cracker Company: Ghost Signs of Spokane Tour
The Washington Cracker Company building, which still stands at the corner of Bernard and Pacific Streets, is one of the most visible reminders of Spokane's foray into the industrial world. Its high…
The “Invisible Empire” on Riverside Ave: The KKK of the 1920s and 1930s in Spokane
During the 1920s and 1930s, Spokane's Riverside Avenue was more than a bustling hub of downtown commerce—it was also a shadowy stronghold for the Ku Klux Klan. Behind unassuming office doors, the…
The Arrival of the Paper Mill at Woodard
Originally called Woodard, or Woodard Station, after the family who owned the land on either side of the tracks, the district that is now Millwood was a little railroad town. The arrival of the Inland…
The Ghost Town of Burke
Nestled in a cramped canyon seven miles from historic Wallace, are the decaying remnants of the once-booming mining town that was built to house the miners of the Hecla, Hercules, Tiger-Poorman, and…
Whistalks Way: Fort George Wright Drive Renamed Whistalks Way
After Colonel Edward Steptoe's defeat by local Native tribes, Colonel George Wright was sent to avenge the U.S. military. Wright's murderous rampage resulted in a street sign memorial in his name.…
The Davenport Hotel: MAC 100 Stories: A Centennial Exhibition
The Davenport Hotel was the brainchild of restauranteur/entrepreneur Louis Davenport. Davenport was not a Spokane native, but he found himself in Spokane shortly after the great fire of 1889. …
Moore Mansion
In 1889, Frank Rockwood Moore and his wife Sarah Franicis Sherlock Moore began work on their residence in Spokane. Moore had made quite a name for himself in the local community. He was the first…
“Uncle Dan” Drumheller, Spokane’s beloved Murderer?: How a Spokane icon got away with murder--perhaps?
Charged with the Murder of an Indian man in 1883, Dan Drumheller was never found guilty—but there's more to the story than meets the eye.