Manito Park
A tour of one of Spokane's most iconic parks, Manito Park.
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20th Street Entrance: Manito Park Tour Spokane Park Highlights Tour
The main entrance to Manito Park is now at 18th and Grand, but in earlier years the entrance was at 20th and Grand. While today the area is green with grass and shaded by a few trees, in the first…
Picnic Shelter: Manito Park Tour
The Downtown Spokane Rotary Club constructed this cooking shelter in November 1960 at a cost of about $16,000. Dessigned by Henry Bertelsen, Eddy Carlson, and James Architects, It enclosed 2000…
Mirror Pond: Manito Park Tour Spokane Park Highlights Tour
The lake before you originally stretched from Division to Grand. First named Mirror Lake, this shallow water feature (between two and five feet deep depending on the season), has been known over the…
Park Bench Cafe: Manito Park Tour
The Park Bench Cafe marks the boundary between the zoo and the rest of the park at the corner of Tekoa and Manito. The zoo was part of Manito Park from 1905 to 1932. The area were the cafe now…
Loop Drive and Bridge: Manito Park Tour
Most of Manito Park is visible from the top of Loop Drive. Did you ever wonder where Spokane got the land for this park? In 1884, Francis Cook, an early settler of Spokan Falls and a newspaper…
The Manito Park Zoo: Manito Park Tour Spokane Park Highlights Tour
The Zoo was part of Manito Park from 1905 to 1932. There were several small animal cages near Rose Hill and the rock gardens, which housed skunk, coyote, bobcat, and other animals. While the zoo was…
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…
Rose Hill: Manito Park Tour
When Francis Cook bought the land that would become Manito Park, he named it Montrose Park for its incredible selection of wild roses. Before Rose Hill was created, the area you are looking at was a…
Lilac Garden: Manito Park Tour
Before the Lilac Garden, this area was part of the Manito Zoo from 1905-1932, where buffalo roamed. One of the larger and more famous of the buffalo was King Ranger. When he died, his body was…
Japanese Gardens - Sister City Program: Manito Park Tour
Before entering the Japanese Gardens, face northwest and you will see the Spokane Sister City sign at the corner of Bernard and Shoshone Place. The Sister City program idea started in the 1940s…
Nishinomiya Tsutakawa Japanese Garden: Manito Park Tour Spokane Park Highlights Tour
Before the Japanese Gardens, this area was part of the zoo from 1905 to 1932. This area was home to ostrich and emu. The Japanese Garden was designed by Nagao Sakurai. He designed 166 gardens all…
Gaiser Conservatory: Manito Park Tour
The original greenhouse was on the corner of 18th and Grand until 1912, when it was relocated to its current location. It was renovated in 1974 in anticipation of the World Expo, and the central dome…
Duncan Gardens: Manito Park Tour
John W. Duncan was the second park superintendent from 1910 to 1942. The garden is now named for him. It was his vision that created the gardens we see today. Duncan came to Spokane from the…
Upper Manito Playground: Manito Park Tour
This area of the park has always been a playground area for children, and if you had visited this section in 1910, it might have looked about the same. The playground is at the southern most edge of…Tour curated by: Tracy Rebstock