Stories by author "Lacey Sipos ": 25
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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…
The Carnegie Library
In 1905, a growing city needed a new library. Carnegie libraries were built with donated funds from the Scottish-American millionaire Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie believed that a "man who dies rich, dies…
The American Legion Building
The commercial Renaissance Revival style structure that dominates the intersection of Washington Street and W. Riverside Avenue is a spectacle of the wealth acquired through the Coeur d'Alene mining…
The American Firebrick Company
This is the site of the American Firebrick Company. Charles P. Oudin, Lucien Oudin, James Kilbreth, and Frank Watson started the American Firebrick Company in 1902. Although it is located 15 miles…
The Centennial Sculpture
What's that in the river? The stainless steel sculpture floating in the Spokane River was created by Harold Balazs in 1978. It was dedicated to the city in 1981 in celebration of the City of Spokane's…
The Rotary Riverfront Fountain: Expo '74 and Riverfront Park Tour
The magnificent fountain in front of you, almost never transpired from vision to reality. When Riverfront Park was renovated following Expo '74, an entertaining children's fountain, as well as an…
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
From 1955 to 1975, more than 3 million Americans fought in Vietnam. Almost 60,000 U.S. soldiers were killed, and more than 150,000 wounded in combat. Almost every community across the United States,…
Lantern Statue
This twenty-foot cement statue was originally titled Untitled, but was quickly renamed The Lantern due to its striking closeness to that of a Japanese lantern. A disarray of geometric cut-outs allows…
The Call and The Challenge
The sculpture in front of you is called The Call and The Challenge. It was erected by Ken Spiering in 1986 to commemorate Sacred Heart Medical Center's 100th year anniversary. The piece depicts Mother…
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…
The Aluminum Fountain
The symmetrical tall sculpture in front of you was created by George Tsutakawa in 1974. George Tsutakawa has created fountains all over the United States and Japan. In congruence with Mr. Tsutakawas…