All Stories

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Leavitt Hall: Where the New Has Replaced the Old: Customs, Controversies, and Protests

By Tibo Coleman

On the spot currently occupied by Weyerhaeuser Hall once stood the Whitworth Dining Hall, which was later named Leavitt Hall. Originally built in 1944 due to the growing student body. Leavitt Hall…

Graves Gym: Dedicated to the Man That Made Whitworth Possible: Graves Gym: Historic Home of the Pirates

By Thomas Wilkie

Graves gym is one of the most important buildings in Whitworth's history. Up until the time it opened in 1942, Whitworth did not have an appropriate gymnasium to play intercollegiate basketball. …

1927 National Air Races at Felt's Field

The 1920's heralded a gripping intrigue in aviation amongst Americans. With new, dangerous demonstrations in flight occurring each year, by 1927 aviators were becoming as popular and idealized as a…

The Kentuck Trail

The first white settlers in the Spokane Valley arrived in the 1860s by a series of pioneer trails coming up from the Snake River Country to the south. Among the most important of these was the Kentuck…

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,…

The Apple Boom and Otis Orchards: Orchards and canals once dominated this area

By Thomas Hunter and Susan Dandrea

Washington's commercial apple industry got its start in the Spokane Valley

Cheney Normal School Heritage Center

The Cheney Normal School Heritage Center was originally located in the woods five miles west of Newport, Washington. It opened in 1905 as the Jore (pronounced "jury") Schoolhouse. It served as the…

Taft: The Wickedest City in America

By Thomas Breysse

By the early 1900s, the rough and tumble frontier towns of America were dying off, slowly becoming gentrified and developed into respectable settlements. Taft, Montana was one town that wasn't going…

The Spokane Mountaineers: From Walking to Summiting

By Theo Bell

Beginning as a group of active librarians, the Spokane Walking Club evolved to become the Spokane Mountaineers

Was it a Spokane High School Teacher who Solved the Riddle of the Ice Age Floods?

By The Floods Explorer Team

We have learned to think of J. Harlen Bretz as the genius who first realized that many of the geologic features of Eastern Washington were carved by catastrophic flooding. However, there is some…

The History of Harrington

By Taylor Brown

The Harrington Museum is dedicated to the history this quintessential eastern Washington wheat town. The firm of Harrington, Furth, and Robinson, composed of speculators from Calusa County…

The Fort Spokane Boarding School: Forced Assimilation for Native American Youth

By the late 1800’s, the frontier was gone and the West was dealing with what they called the "Indian problem." One of their solutions was the Indian Boarding School.

The Fort Spokane Brewery: Beer for the Soldiers

Before the Spanish-American War, soldiers stationed at Fort Spokane relied on one man to lift their spirits; a German brewer who made the Fort his home.

The Ceremony of Tears: The rising waters of Lake Roosevelt ended a 10,000-year native tradition

As Kettle Falls, a popular Native American fishing and gathering spot slipped slipped below the surface of Lake Roosevelt, Indians gathered for one final ceremony.

"The World's Largest Stage"
: Spokane's Golden Age Auditorium Theater

It was the "crown jewel" of a small town that had burned to the ground just one year before...

Puttin' on the Ritz
: The Ritz Theater of Spokane, Washington circa 1924

"The little theater charms and satisfies and makes an attractive addition to Spokane's Playhouse Row" (Spokesman-Review, 11 May 1924).

The North Division Drive-In at the Y
Circa 1952: The Y Drive-In of Spokane

In the 1970's the City Corporation Council warned Spokane to "clean up its ordinance" after receiving complaints from church groups that the old drive-in theater at the Y was playing pornographic…

Falls City Opera House: Spokane's First Live Theater