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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 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 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 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 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 7: Unsung Equine Heroes
Erected in 1904 and opened in January 1905, the first Station No. 7 was located at the northeast corner of First and Magnolia. In efforts to purchase a flag and landscaping trees, a benefit dance was…
Spokane Fire Station No. 8: Firemen Tournaments
Built almost identical to Station No. 7 around 1911, Station No. 8 was located on the northeast corner of Sinto and Cochran. It closed in September of 1933, and was razed by 1936, not to be rebuilt…
Spokane Fire Station No. 9: Old Nine
In 1908 the first Station No. 9 was constructed on this site to serve Spokane's newest neighborhood, the growing South Hill. No. 9 housed one combination truck and chemical engine, one 3rd class…
Spokane in the Great War: Spokane was deeply involved in the First World War, but few visible reminders remain
The Marne bridge across Latah Creek is the only World War one monument in Spokane
Spokane Japanese Farms
In the first half of the twentieth century small Japanese farms peppered the outskirts of the city. The produce from their farms in Bigelow Gulch, Nine Mile Falls, Spokane Valley, and Latah Creek…
Spokane Parental School
[Private Residence]
Built not to imprison or punish, but to educate, the Spokane Parental School was an innovation in education and corrections. In 1907, the city board of education authorized the…
Spokane Public Bath House
The Spokane Public Bath House was part of the Spokane Parks' master plan, a result of the vision of the Olmstead brothers of the famous family of landscape architects responsible for New York's…
Spokane Shows Its Pride: “We’re Here. We’re Queer. We’re Fabulous- Get Used To It!”
In 1992, Spokane’s first pride march moved forward under restriction and threat, as participants took to the sidewalks to demand visibility in a city that had yet to make space for them.
Spokane Stockyards: A reminder of Spokane's agricultural past
From the 1880s to 1999, Spokane was a town of slaughterhouses. The Old Union Stockyards were the last of their kind.
Spokane University
During the boom years of early Spokane, colleges and academic institutions began to pop up around the city. Spokane University was among the first universities in Spokane and the first in the valley,…
Spokane Valley Heritage Museum/Opportunity Township Hall
You are looking at one of the last physical remnants of the now defunct "Township" form of government in Washington. A state vote in 1908 granted the formation of County Townships as semi-autonomous,…