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Spokane's Whites-Only Sperm Bank: [Tasteless Masturbation Pun Here]
In the 1990s Spokane gained national attention for a whites-only sperm bank. Things did not go as planned, and the spank bank soon tanked.
Mammoth Undertaking for Cheney Students
In the early 1990s, second-graders in Mrs. Sara Jane Aebly’s class at Windsor Elementary School discovered that Washington State did not have an official state fossil. Encouraged by their teacher,…
John R. Monaghan Statue: Martyr to An Obscure War: Killed by Alfred Thayer Mahan
This dashing young man who perches in front of the Spokane Club, leaning on his sword and staring down the traffic on Monroe with steely-eyed determination is John R. Monaghan, who died because of a…
The Cheney Lynchings: Mob violence or ethnic cleansing?
In the early 1880s two men were hanged without trial, one Chinese and the other a Spokane Indian.
Rise and Fall of Valleyford
The tiny community of Valleyford has a story like many of the small towns of the Palouse. The area was first settled in the 1880s, and Valleyford was incorporated in 1906. The town enjoyed some…
Deep Creek School
The Deep Creek school was built in 1905, to replace an earlier, one-room schoolhouse that stood at the same spot.
The town of Deep Creek was founded in 1883 as Deep Creek Falls. An 1889 guide for…
Diseases of Men: Venereal diseases were common in early Spokane, and desperate suffers sought out quack treatments.
Early Spokane was a town full of working men and working women. For laborers throughout the region the city was a refuge and a pleasuring ground. Miners, loggers, and agricultural workers would come…
The Mullan Tree
North of I-90, just off of exit 28 is a short interpretive trail dedicated to the memory of Captain John Mullan and special 4th of July celebration.
While excavating a military road in the…
Mullan, Idaho
Today a small, quiet settlement of 690 people, Mullan, Idaho was once a bustling mining town. Located just four miles west of the Montana border, Mullan was established in 1884. The town was named…
Spokane's Other Indians, A Baseball Story: Avoiding Stereotypes, Building Bridges
Spokane's own professional baseball team has undergone a lot of changes since 1903!
Spokane Baseball Club is a Local Passion
Baseball was America's national pastime before Spokane was even a city. As the railroads moved across the west, Midwestern baseball promoter John Sloane Barnes moved to Spokane in 1890 to help…
The Sherwood Building and its Terracotta Gargoyles
This grand building, recently renamed from the Sherwood to the Cutter Building, is one of many Spokane landmarks designed by Kirtland Cutter. Famed architect Kirtland Kelsey Cutter moved to Spokane in…
Joe Albi Stadium: Local Teams Find A Home to Play
As Spokane grew in size and importance, it became apparent that the city would need a stadium for local and visiting sports teams as well as traveling music acts.
The decision to build came before…
Broadview Dairy: Ghost Signs of Spokane Tour
The Broadview Dairy sign is a reminder of the importance of local dairies in turn-of-the-century Spokane. Indeed, milk was a staple food in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and was…
Commission Building: Ghost Signs of Spokane Tour - Story 9
Constructed in 1906 by James M. Geraghty, the Commission Building was one of Spokane's early produce warehouses. Built for the Rasher-Kingman-Herrin Company, the Commission Building stored and…
Raznik Building
Young cities in the 1900s, especially those who were recovering from post-fire downtown, exercised freedom and ingenuity when it came to rebuilding Spokane's infrastructure. New technologies allowed…
Robertson Building
Frederick C. Robertson bought this land in 1912. The three-story building is embellished with coupled windows, flat brick and Florentine arches, belt courses of red and white bricks and a projecting…
Hyde Building and Annex
Until the late 1900's, when it was demolished, this site housed the architecturally interesting Hyde Building and Annex. The six-story Hyde Building was constructed in 1890 to house office spaces and…
Hill Brothers Building
Originally, the building in front of you was a wood frame structure that was occupied by a saloon and gaming hall. The saloon, along with almost all its neighbors, was destroyed by the fire of 1889.…
1889 Building
In 1889 a great fire swept across the fledging city of Spokane destroying most of the city's downtown. Many of the buildings hastily built after the fire were not of the best quality, workmanship, or…
Bump Block and the Hotel Carlyle: Ghost Signs of Spokane Tour - Story 6
This towering structure of brick was one of the first to be built following the Great Fire of 1889. The Bump Block, constructed in 1890, is a seven-story Commercial Style infused with more classical…
Peyton Building and Annex
Fire constantly threatened early Spokane. The city suffered a major conflagration in 1889, but many smaller fires have struck over the years. The Peyton Building was built to replace the Great Eastern…
Morgan Block
Much like Henry Sorg who saw the need for inexpensive housing and built the Globe Hotel in 1908, Spokane real estate developer Daniel Morgan hired architect Alfred Jones to design the Fairmont Hotel…
The Kemp & Hebert Building
Built in 1908, Kemp & Hebert Building represents a style of construction that was extremely popular in Spokane for the time. While many new buildings were adopting the new technology of…
Odd Fellows IOOF Lodge
Like most new western cities, Spokane was home to many fraternal organizations. Fraternal organizations were a type of social organization whose members united for beneficial purpose. These societies…
Home Telephone & Telegraph Company Building
On December 31, 1886, Spokane had its first telephone exchange and an infrastructure for the technology was established. Thaddeus Lane, an entrepreneur from Ohio, was responsible for the exchange…
Hotel Upton
At the turn of the century, thousands of Spokane workers lived in hotels much like this one. Built in 1910, the Hotel Upton was a Single Room Occupancy Hotel (SRO). Typical of SROs at the time, the…
Holley-Mason Hardware Building
Constructed in 1905 for $200,000, the Renaissance inspired building in front of you is a six-story commercial structure. The Holley-Mason Building was one of the first reinforced concrete buildings in…
The Globe Hotel: Ghost Signs of Spokane Tour
The railroad lines, and the limitless job opportunities that came with them, brought a great number of families to the Inland Northwest in search for better lives. Seeing the need for inexpensive…
Dry Goods Realty Company
Spokane is great example of how Northwest cities were able to organize nature through commerce. From its beginning, Spokane was connected to its abundant hinterland of resources and budding…