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Washington State Archives, Digital Archives
Opening in 2004, the Washington State Archives Building was created to house both the Eastern Washington Regional Archives and both state and local government Digital Archives. It was the first…
The Crescent Building
Large department stores once ruled the centers of American cities. Macy's in New York, Nordstrom in Seattle, and the Crescent in Spokane sold everything needed for daily life and often many extras. …
Theodore Roosevelt on the Parade Grounds: Fort George Wright Tour
You are standing where Teddy Roosevelt stood on April 8th 1911, reviewing the 500 heroic African-American troops of the 25th Infantry as they passed in review. The 25th Infantry had served with…
Schade Brewery
Spokane was a town of working men--and a town of breweries when the Schade Brewery was built in 1903. Bernhardt Schade, who owned the building, was brew master at the locally-owned and operated New…
Trent Alley: Spokane's Original Melting Pot
In 1913, the east side of Spokane's downtown teemed with small businesses run by Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Greek and German immigrants. Their restaurants, laundries and baths, barber shops, hotels,…
Unsolved Assassination
[PRIVATE RESIDENCE - Do not disturb.]
A shot rang out, glass broke, and down went the former Spokane Police Chief, John Sullivan, in his own living room. On Jan. 5, 1911 the former Chief of Police…
That Place Where Ghosts of Salmon Jump, Spokane Falls
At the Spokane Public Library's Overlook Park there is a platform overlooking Spokane Falls. It was here that artist and former Spokane resident Sherman Alexie was inspired to write his poem, "That…
Joel E. Ferris Perennial Gardens: Manito Park Tour
From 1905 to 1932 during the zoo years at Manito this area was covered with decorative hedges and paths to different areas of the zoo. Reports list animal cages along the wall to the current Rose…
Indian Canyon Park
This hidden and beautiful park sits just off Riverside Drive under the shadow of a railroad trestle.
This park was once home to several Native Americans including Chief Spokan Garry. Native…
Palisades Park
Palisades Park starts high above Spokane and includes about 700 acres. The cross streets are Greenwood Rd. and Rimrock Drive. The park is considered both conservation land and a city park and…
Ben Burr Trail
This trail constructed along an abandoned railroad line was part of the old Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad Company. This passenger line transported people within Spokane as well recreational…
Aubrey L. White Parkway: Spokane Park Highlights Tour
Aubrey L. White is the known as the father of Spokane's Parks. He arrived in Spokane in 1889 and spent a lot of time mapping, marking, and noting the incredible views and features in the Spokane…
Grant Park
Grant Park sits in the newly revitalized Perry Street District on the lower South Hill. This park is unique in that it was originally designed to be a playfield, originally called the U. S. Grant…
High Bridge Park: Spokane Park Highlights Tour
High Bridge Park has had a variety of uses including a motor camp, sanitarium for tuberculosis, temporary home to a steam locomotive, federal housing for veterans, a potential zoo site, a dude ranch…
Polly Judd Park
Polly Judd was an enthusiastic supporter of Spokane Parks and was active in the community. According to her obituary on March 30, 1981 in the Spokane Daily Chronicle, she was one of the founders of…
Underhill Park
Underhill park started as Underhill Playfield. Unlike many of the other early parks in Spokane, which were meant to be landscaped gardens of peace and contemplation, this park was designed to have…
Minnehaha Health Spa and Resort
When Edgar J. Webster came to Spokane in 1883 he planned to practice law. He built his summer home on the outskirts of the growing city of Spokane in a place called Minnehaha. The stone building…
Sisters of St. Francis, Fairmount Cemetery
Clustered together in the Catholic section of Fairmount Memorial Park are 8 graves from the early 1900s that belong to the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia. Each grave was once marked with a…
High Drive Parkway
The breathtaking views ago High Drive are the highlight of Spokane's system of scenic roadways.
The system was laid out a century ago and is described in the Park Board Report of 1913, "High Drive…
Spokane's Deadliest Disaster, Greenwood Cemetery
There are 15 unmarked graves at Greenwood Memorial Terrace that belong to railroad workers who were blown to smithereens on 06 September 1890.
A crew, of at least 24 men, was working that day to…
Spokane's First Legal Hanging, Greenwood Cemetery: Spokane's First Legal Hanging, Greenwood Cemetery
Where lays Charles Brooks? Who was he? Why is he in an unmarked grave? Mr. Brooks has the unfortunate fame of being the first legally hanged man in Spokane.
The 1891 Brooks case was quite the…
Riverside State Park: Spokane Park Highlights Tour
The land where Riverside State Park sits was once lands used by the Spokane Tribe and other local tribes. The Native Americans would meet at the Spokane Falls or near the confluence of the Little…
Edwidge Woldson Park
Seventh Avenue and the lower South Hill was once the neighborhood of Spokane elites. Bankers, senators, businessmen, mining and lumber entrepreneurs, doctors, architects, and lawyers built their…
Cliff Park: Spokane Park Highlights Tour
Standing at 2260 feet above sea level, this volcanic outcrop was used by the Spokane Tribe as a lookout. On a clear day you can see as far as the Little Spokane River and Mount Spokane.
The park…
John G. Lake, Riverside Cemetery
Faith healer, John Graham Lake, was a prominent evangelical preacher and contributor to the founding of the American Pentecostal movement in the early 1900s. He began the first healing rooms in…
Riverside Cemetery
The land where Riverside Memorial Park lies was originally a recreational municipal park, which opened in 1907 when John Aylard Finch spearheaded the organization of the Riverside Park Company. It…
Hidden Tunnel at Greenwood Cemetery
Would you believe there's a tunnel that runs through the cemetery grounds at Greenwood Memorial Terrace? It's true. The 1889 plat for the cemetery indicates a proposed railroad terminal in the…
Dr. Mary Latham, Greenwood Cemetery
Dr. Mary Archard Latham, Spokane's pioneer female physician, is one of early Spokane's most colorful and controversial characters.
Latham graduated from medical school in 1886, at the age of 42,…
A History of Greenwood Cemetery
As Spokane outgrew its frontier beginnings, its old church graveyards were at risk of overflowing, and the small pioneer cemeteries got in the way of land development. In order to solve both issues,…
Scattering Garden, Fairmount Cemetery
The most recent change in burial practices is the increasing use of cremation. According to the Cremation Association of North America, nearly 26% of U. S. deaths in the year 2000 resulted in…