By The Spokane Historical team
Recognizing the success of Seattle's public marketplace, early Spokane residents eagerly sought to replicate it. In August of 1908, after many politically disputes, Spokane's first public market…

By The Spokane Historical team
Elmer J. Bliss established the Regal Shoe Company in Boston in 1893. It became the most successful company of its kind in the world until it closed in 1922 during the economic slump following WWI.…

By The Spokane Historical team
Singers Bing Crosby and Mildred Bailey shared humble beginnings in Spokane's jazz scene. Bailey was singing the blues in a popular Los Angeles speakeasy when her brother, Al Rinker, lured Crosby into…

By The Spokane Historical team
In 1929, aviator Nick Mamer and mechanic Art Walker held the Spokane Sun-God aloft for five days and nights - America's first nonstop, round-trip transcontinental flight. Refueling in the air was the…

By The Spokane Historical team
Spokane House was Washington state's first fur-trading post and home to Jaco Finlay, a clerk for the North West Company of Montreal. The son of a Scottish trader and an American Indian "country wife,"…

By The Spokane Historical team
On April 30, 1806, the Corps of Discovery "took leave of those honest people the Wallahwallahs," Meriwether Lewis noted in his diary. Other important moments of Western settlement in Walla Walla would…

By The Spokane Historical team
"Near Nature. Near Perfect." The tourism motto of Visit Spokane highlights outdoor recreation, an Inland Northwest passion for more than a century. Short winters, dry climate and a yearly average of…

By The Spokane Historical team
A homesteader wrote of the Palouse in the 1880s: "Its beauty was wild and untrammeled and the undulating hills were covered with luxuriant grasses." Bunchgrasses and wildflowers created a lush meadow,…

By The Spokane Historical team
The impressive Herculean Pillars standing before you mark the formal entrance to Eastern Washington University. Built in 1915, the pillars were constructed out of salvaged granite from the…

By Zachary Wnek
Sitting roughly 500 feet above Hangman Creek, Overlook Park is a great place to relax and enjoy the view of hangman valley. Overlook Park was conceived as part of the Browne's Addition Neighborhood…

By Zachary Wnek
The Elk Drug Store in Spokane has changed many times over its 90 year history. Initially the Elk Drug Store opened by a partnership of Stone & Sutherland in Spokane on 415 Riverside Avenue between…

By Zachary Wnek
The Reid House is a private residence, please respect the residents' privacy by remaining on the sidewalk as you examine this historic home. What is known today as the Reid house was built in…

By Zachary Wnek
As Spokane grew in the late 19th Century there were some needs of the community that were not being filled. The Episcopal Diocese of Spokane believed that one of these needs was an all girls school…

By Zachary Wnek
Leydford B. Whitten (commonly refered to as L.B. Whitten) moved from Virginia to Spokane County in 1880 after having initially moved west to The Dalles, Oregon. L.B. Whitten was a curious man who was…

By Zachary Wnek
In the early 1900s life was changing. As cities grew, real estate close to the city centers was becoming sparse and expensive. Public transpiration options in many cities, such as Spokane, was not…

By Zachary Wnek
The hotel located on the 1100 block of W. 1st Avenue has changed hands many times from when it was built in 1911. In 1911 the Single Residence Occupancy hotel, or SRO, was named the Willard Hotel. …

By Zachary Wnek
Judge John Blinkley built the Montvale Block in 1899. The Montvale Block was as a Single Resident Occupancy hotel, which meant that much like a hotel each tenant had their own room as a measure of…