By Larry Cebula
In the early 1990s, second-graders in Mrs. Sara Jane Aebly’s class at Windsor Elementary School discovered that Washington State did not have an official state fossil. Encouraged by their teacher,…

By Tracy L. Rebstock
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…

By Tracy L. Rebstock
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…

By Tracy L. Rebstock
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…

By Erin Pulley
In the depths of America's Great Depression, news of a huge construction project in Washington State brought a flood of unemployed men seeking jobs. The "mushroom towns of the Grand Coulee" sprouted…

By Jesse Roberts
The Mearow Block began as two separate buildings the Bickett Hotel built in 1905 and the Richmond Hotel built in 1907. Joseph A. Mearow bought the two buildings and in 1928 connected them with a…

By Mayra Villalobos
The faded sign at the top of this building, The New Merlin Hotel-tells two stories. One is the story of pioneering women business owners; the other is of the slow decline of a neighborhood.

By Jessica L Bell
Mica Peak today is a popular hiking spot with the entrance at Liberty Lake Regional Park. The very qualities that make it perfect for recreation today made it perfect for another activity nearly a…

By Allie Todd
A graduate of Cheney High School and the University of Washington, Michael P. Anderson was a proud Washingtonian. He was described by friends and family at his memorial service as being "a humble,…

By Casey Baulne
In 1954, the long and deadly hand of the Cold War touched the Spokane Reservation. Uranium was found in the remote mountains. To exploit this fuel and bomb-making material the Midnite Mine opened…

By Jesse Roberts
You are looking at the Miller Block, built in 1890. Stanley Miller, a co-proprietor of the Spokane Ice Company, bought this land and had a two story wood-post building constructed in 1887. This…

By Robert M. Lambeth
This impressive structure is the Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul (CM & SP) Viaduct, built in 1909. The CM & SP railway was, for the first few decades of settlement, one of the most important railroad…

By Tracy L. Rebstock
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…

By Liz Wood
The Davenport’s “Matador Room” did not actually feature bullfighting, the Desert Hotel’s “Mirage Room” could only offer such hallucinations as alcohol provided, and the Coeur d’Alene Hotel’s “Donkey…

By John Moudy
By the middle of the nineteenth century the Cheney State Normal School continued to expand in spite of the disastrous fire. Only a year after Showalter Hall was built it was apparent that the…

By Paige M. Nash
The river that lent its name to Spokane has also been a barrier to the development of the city. No sooner was Spokane established than city fathers looked for places to bridge the raging currents.…

By Jesse Roberts
You are looking at the old Montgomery Wards building, now Spokane City Hall. The site of this building is wonderfully situated. It over-looks the Lower Spokane Falls, is next to Riverfront Park, and…

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…

By Ian Reeves
In 1889, Frank Rockwood Moore and his wife Sarah Franicis Sherlock Moore began work on their residence in Spokane. Moore had made quite a name for himself in the local community. He was the first…