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Spokane Fire Station No. 6: A Burning Issue: Diversifying the Spokane Fire Department
Black Spokanites served as firefighters from the frontier periods. However, integrating women into the force would take much longer.
Spokane Fire Station No. 5: Firefighters Give Status to Schoolchildren
Built in 1893, Station No. 5 was originally located in the City Hall Annex, on the northeast corner of Howard and Front. Sometime between 1911-1912, it was relocated to the new City Hall at the…
Spokane Fire Station No. 4: In the Line of Duty
Constructed in 1899, ten years after the Great Fire of 1889, Station No. 4 was originally located at 1304 West First Avenue. No. 4 has been relocated numerous times, due to efforts to expand the…
Spokane Fire Station No. 3: Hoses, Water, and Engines
Spokane boomed in the 1890s. Mining, timber, agriculture, and transportation fueled the growth of the city, from less than twenty thousand in 1890 to thirty-seven thousand ten years later. A growing…
Spokane Fire Station No. 2: Spokane's First Firefighters
Spokane's Fire Department began with Station No. 1 and Station No. 2. After forming the Spokane Falls Volunteer Fire Department in 1884, Rescue Hose No. 1, made up of "white-collar men," and Spokane…
Spokane Fire Station No. 18: Property Wars
Station No. 18 is the newest member to the Spokane Fire Department stations. It was opened in 1970 and located at 37 E. Cozza Drive. Unfortunately, in 1977, the property lines for the station were…
Spokane Fire Station No. 17: Time of War
Though the United States was not yet officially involved in the Second World War until December of 1941, the Spokane Fire Department established Station No. 17, located at Felts Field, for military…
Spokane Fire Station No. 16: Department Extracurricular Activities
Opening its doors in 1926, No. 16 was one of the two stations to open that year. It was a single story, brick bungalow located at Milton and Northwest Boulevard. An open house was arranged welcoming…
Spokane Fire Station No. 15: Fire, Steel, and Coal
Station No. 15 was originally located at 3009 E. Olympic, serving the small railroad community of Hillyard. The modest structure first served as Hillyard City Hall and the city jail. In 1924, Hillyard…
Spokane Fire Station No. 14: Location Disputes
The location of fire stations always involves political struggle and compromise. As Spokane grew so did the need for expanded fire protection, and neighborhoods competed for new stations in a…
Spokane Fire Station No. 13: Emergence into 20th Century Firefighting
Station No. 13 was the first station in Spokane to be built specifically for fire trucks, and not horse-drawn equipment. The single-story brick bungalow opened on June 22, 1913 at Wabash and Jefferson…
Spokane Fire Station No. 12: Blazes of Finger Pointing
Slated to last 100 years, Station No. 12 was erected of brick and mortar in 1912, located at 2307 E. Glass Avenue. No. 12 was the last station built to house horses, and every station since has been…
Spokane Fire Station No. 11: Unionizing for the Community
Station No. 11 was another stick cottage-style station for the fire department. It was built in 1910 and located at 2711 S. Grand Avenue. The original station was razed in 1936, with the new station…
Spokane Fire Station No. 10: Lives of Early Spokane Firefighters
Replaced after 48 years of service, No. 10 was a stick cottage-style building constructed in 1904 and located at the northeast corner of Gordon and Division. In widespread attempts to modernize the…
Spokane Fire Station No. 1: Establishing a Professional Force
Although the professionalization of the Spokane Falls Volunteer Fire Department was emerging years before the Great Fire of 1889, it wasn't until a few months after when the City passed an ordinance…
Spokane County Courthouse
The building you are currently standing in front of is the Spokane County Courthouse. Although it looks like an old, romantic European castle, it is actually the place where the county's first public…
Spokane Children’s Home: The Unhappiest Place on Earth
The Spokane Children’s Home was one of the most successful orphanages in Spokane in 1935 when a scandal involving the superintendent and his assistant exploded in the headlines.
Spokane Buddhist Temple
Early Spokane had more ethnic and religious diversity than we often realize. Many Japanese immigrants were drawn to Eastern Washington's railroad and mining jobs in the late 1800s and early 1900s. …
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…
Spokane Army Air Depot: The Birth of Fairchild
What is now Fairchild Airforce Base originated as an Army Air Supply and Repair Depot to service the other airfields around Spokane and in the Pacific Northwest.
Spanish Influenza Victims, Riverside Cemetery
Spokane: Another statistic of the 1918 influenza pandemic. In fact, Spokane's mortality rate was nearly three times the national average, 6%. The Spanish flu, as it was commonly called, first…
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,…
Smith Cottage
Private Residence
The Smith Cottage is both architecturally and historically interesting. Built in 1912 by Charles R. Wood, the Smith Cottage is also commonly referred to as the Smith House (not…
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…
Silverwood - From Airport to Theme Park
Regionally known as the largest amusement park in the Inland Northwest, Silverwood has a long and varied history as an airport, an air museum, and finally a place of roller coasters and waterslides.…
Showalter Hall
The building you are now facing is Showalter Hall, the oldest building on campus dating back to EWU's second incarnation as a teachers college. Throughout the history of EWU its development has been…
Shamil
This sculpture with the austere expression was dedicated on July 2, 1992. This abstract sculpture was given to Spokane by our former sister city Makhachkala. The sculpture represents Shamil, an…
Shadle-Comstock House
[Private Residence]
The Shadle-Comstock house on West 9th Avenue was built in 1911 by Willis A. Ritchie. Set in the Cliff/Cannon Neighborhood, it is one of four historic houses built in Tudor…
Sex Work in Early Spokane: Sex work was an important economic driver in the growth of the Lilac City.
Though first-hand accounts from prostitutes in this era are rare, a set of letters from a Spokane sex worker shed light on "the world's oldest profession."
Senior Hall
The building you are now facing is called Senior Hall. Unlike most of Eastern's facilities, Senior Hall is not named after any particular person. In its original design Senior Hall was very similar…