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The House of The "Black Robes"
A home to generations of Jesuit missionaries
Seely G. Mudd Chapel: Whitworth's Home for God: The chapel, where many gather to rejoice, fellowship, and worship.
Much has changed from the original Whitworth University chapel days where attendance was mandatory, knitting could get you reprimanded and a headline in the newspaper, and politics were debated…
J&D Paints: Ghost Signs of Spokane Tour
The faded J&D Paints advertisement on the side of this building describes more than paint, it is a relic of a time when Spokane was a city of neighborhoods, each with its own miniature commercial…
Fairmont Creamery and Cold Storage: Ghost Signs of Spokane Tour
On the outskirts of Spokane's Central Business District lies a scattering of brick warehouses littered with the fading signs of a different era, including one advertising the Fairmont Creamery and…
Grand Coulee Dam: Electricity for Jackrabbits
Larger than all of the Pyramids of Giza put together, this mammoth concrete structure began as a dream in a small arid Central Washington farm town. In 1918, Billy Clapp, a lawyer in Ephrata,…
Elephant in the Desert
Even before the dam was complete, Grand Coulee attracted visitors eager to view this unique geological landscape. Once construction started on the dam, sightseers came from all over the world to…
B Street
This quiet street once had a national reputation - for drunkenness and debauchery.
Mason City
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…
Good Fishing on the Main Street of Marcus
Once a thriving Columbia River town, the site of Marcus now lies beneath the waters of Lake Roosevelt.
Chief Joseph Dam
Bridgeport, WA was fading in into the surrounding fields and orchards, but was revived with the construction of the Chief Joseph Dam. Nestled on the outside of a bend in the Columbia River, the small…
Salmon Past and Present
The Chief Joseph Fish Hatchery, being constructed by the Colville Tribe on this site, is part of an attempt to restore not only some threatened species, but also an endangered way of life. For many…
The Fishery at Kettle Falls
Beneath the placid waters of Lake Roosevelt at this location lies what was once one of the most important native sites on the Columbia plateau - Kettle Falls. For thousands of years, Indians from as…
Bertha Finley Brisbois: Bertha Finley Brisbois Brings Schools to the Reservation
From Boarding School to a University Scholarship
The Late, Great Meyers Falls: The Annexation of Meyers Falls
How Meyers Falls became Kettle Falls.
The Box: Sweat Box or Sewer?
What do you do with a drunken soldier? Park historians are unsure what this metal-lidded hole in the ground was used for, but some say “the box” was a punishment for soldiers who broke the rules.
An Overlook to Memorialize a Renowned Geologist
The Fryxell Overlook is a wonderful viewpoint to see Palouse Falls and the Palouse River. The gazebo is dedicated to R.H. Fryxell and located a short hike south of the parking lot at Palouse Falls…
Lewis and Clark High School
Lewis and Clark High School was not always the magnificent landmark it is today. In fact, it was founded in 1883 as schoolhouse called Central School, which became the high school when the city built…
The Woman's Club of Spokane
The Woman's Club of Spokane is a beautiful and enduring fixture of the South Hill neighborhood. The brick building standing now remains largely as it was when it was dedicated on November 5, 1928,…
First Congregational Church (Westminster UCC)
First Congregational Church (now called Westminster Congregational Church), located next to Lewis and Clark High School, has a long history. In 1838 when Congregationalists first arrived in the…
The Benewah Milk Bottle
The Benewah Milk just off I-90 is an unmistakable downtown Spokane landmark. It is one of two Milk Bottle buildings in Spokane: one on Garland Avenue (built in 1934), and another on Cedar Street (the…
Blair Business College: Ghost Signs of Spokane Tour
At the corner of First and Post Streets stands a squat brick building upon which is painted "Blair Business College." The faded sign is visible from blocks away, but few people understand its…
The Washington Cracker Company: Ghost Signs of Spokane Tour
The Washington Cracker Company building, which still stands at the corner of Bernard and Pacific Streets, is one of the most visible reminders of Spokane's foray into the industrial world. Its high…
Henry George Cigars: Ghost Signs of Spokane Tour
There is a striking ghost sign painted on the east side of the building at 27 West Main Street (now Harmon Autoglass) that suggests the rough-and-tumble character of the neighborhood in the 1910s when…
Western Spokane Historic Transportation Corridor
Of the eighty-seven ghost signs in the greater Spokane area, ninety percent are within two blocks of Sprague Avenue (once known as U.S.10) and the Northern Pacific Railroad, in an area known as the…
The Cheney Northern Pacific Railway Depot
Please be aware that this structure is located on private property and access is prohibited for safety reasons.
From the 1880s to the 1930s, the Northern Pacific Railway Depot in Cheney, WA was…
Welcome to the Ghost Signs Tour: Ghost Signs of Spokane Tour
Advertising is not a new phenomenon in America. Print advertising for goods and services goes as far back as the seventeenth century with the spread of literacy in the colonial period. The…
The “Invisible Empire” on Riverside Ave: The KKK of the 1920s and 1930s in Spokane
During the 1920s and 1930s, Spokane's Riverside Avenue was more than a bustling hub of downtown commerce—it was also a shadowy stronghold for the Ku Klux Klan. Behind unassuming office doors, the…
Eric A. Johnston and the Science Building: Spokane boy becomes famous
In the fall of 1966 at Whitworth College in Spokane, the Eric Johnston Science Center was dedicated in honor of Eric Johnston and the legacy he left behind. This $1.1 million project used to be home…
Air Raid Preparation: How Spokane Protected Citizens During World War Two
During World War Two the United States took measures to ensure civilian safety, which included the creation of the Office of Civilian Defense. The Spokane Office of Civilian Defense helped protect…
Spokane's Gold Star Mothers: Some Spokane mothers gave their all to the war effort, and not every son returned
Wilmer Evers died in a Prisoner Of War camp in the Philippines during World War Two. His mother was given a gold star pin to honor the sacrifice her son made for his country.