Built in 1968, Streeter Hall was the first co-ed residence hall on campus. This was done to provide a new atmosphere of campus living. Though the hall was co-ed, men and women lived in different sections of the hall, with women occupying the north wings of the hall and the men occupying the south wings.

The hall is also said to be haunted by the ghost of a workman who fell to his death during the construction of the hall on October 16, 1967, and students have affectionately nicknamed the spooky spirit Lucky. However, no one died during the construction of Streeter but workman, Theron McAda, did fall several stories during construction but he survived. His fall was witnessed by several students who claimed that he died. After the building was completed and students began hearing strange noises in the winter quarter of 1968, they claimed it was the ghost of the workman haunting the building and the legend of the ghost of Streeter was born. However, Mrs. Anne Sargent, one of Streeter's directors at the time, stated that "no ghosts exist in Streeter or anywhere else and that any strange noises come from the ventilation system." Today, the story of the Streeter ghost remains firmly entrenched in student's minds and the legend is told to each new batch of residents.

The hall's namesake was Ruth Cheney Streeter. She was the granddaughter of Benjamin P. Cheney, the man for whom both the town of Cheney and the college are named. She born on October 2, 1895 in Brookline, Massachusetts as Ruth Cheney to Mary Ward and Charles Paine Cheney. She later went on to marry Thomas Winthrop Streeter in 1917 and have four children, three sons and one daughter. In 1940, after she raised her family, she earned her pilot's license.

When World War II began, Ruth Cheney Streeter, who was then in her late 40s, was considered too old to ferry planes to Europe for the Women's Air Force Pilots, but after Pearl Harbor, women were desperately needed in the military and the women's reserves were created to meet the demand. She was appointed director of the Women's Reserve of the Marine Corps and commissioned as a major on January 29, 1943. With this appointment, she made military history by becoming the first woman to attain the rank of major in the United States Marine Corps. She was promoted to lieutenant colonel later that year and promoted to the position of full colonel in 1944. By the time she resigned her commission on December 6, 1945, she was the highest ranking woman in the USMC. In 1946, she was awarded the Legion of Merit for Outstanding Service. She attended the dedication of Streeter Hall on May 13, 1969 and died of congestive heart failure at the age of ninety five on September 30, 1990.

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This building at 405 First Street that now houses Bill's Tavern was built in 1902. Before this structure was erected, this spot was previously the site of a wooden building that housed a general merchandise store. Built in an L-shaped configuration, this new building combined two separated business areas. The rear section housed a plumbing and hardware business, while the front section was occupied by a bank. By 1916 the two sections merged and become a billiards hall and saloon. When Washington State went dry in 1914, the saloon switched to served soft drinks instead of alcohol, but by the time Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the saloon had gone out of business and the building was just being used a storefront until it was purchased by Bill Lee, a Cheney local.

In 1940, Lee bought the vacant building and opened a tavern. Fittingly named Bill's Tavern, he furnished the inside with furniture and décor reminiscent of historic saloons. He also outfitted the interior with a jukebox and pool tables. William, or Bill Lee, first arrived in Cheney in 1933 and operated the tavern solo until 1947 when Francis Lee, his 26 year old son, was named a business partner. Together, father and son ran the tavern until Bill retired in 1957 and Francis took over the business entirely. In 1973, Francis' son, Dick joined the family business after a tour in the Navy and ten years later, took over the tavern but vowed to make only a couple of changes. "Oh, I want to get some pool tournaments going; create a little more activity" he said, "but it's been a good operation in the past."

Hopes that a fourth generation of Lee's would serve beer in Cheney were dashed when Dick's son decided not to take over the family business. 2006 was a sad year for the family because Dick was forced to sell the iconic tavern and end its 66 year legacy of being owned by the same family.

Dick cited the state's smoking ban as large reason since it cut his business in half and said that he could have rescued the business by starting to serve hard liquor, "but that wouldn't fit in with the beer-drinking atmosphere." Instead, he chose to sell the tavern for $190,000 to 29 year Josh Baldwin who hoped to bring in more students while retaining the "den-like" atmosphere for the tavern's old-timers. Since the tavern has changed hands, much has remained the same except for a few minor changes. The name was changed to Wild Bill's Longbar, coin operated pool tables were installed, and a false ceiling was torn out. The tavern has continued to thrive and remained an iconic part of Cheney's downtown. Baldwin, when asked whether the former owners would be considered honorary customers who would get free beer, smiled and said "I could do that for them."

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You are now facing the University House, where the presidents of Eastern Washington University reside.

Also referred to as the President's house, this building is on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of six original campus buildings located in the Eastern Washington University Historic District. The University House got its start when in 1927 The Normal School's Board of Trustees approved the spending of $22,500 to construct a new residence on campus for the president of the institution. The Board hired architect Julius Zittel to design the new building, but his original plans of building a large mansion had to be scrapped and his first design revised when his price estimate for the project went over budget. The final result was a moderately sized Georgian Colonial that was finished in the fall of 1929 and was built by E.J. Morin and Co.

Though there was no formal dedication of the structure, President Richard T. Hargreaves and his wife, Mrs. Hargreaves, held several open house receptions to celebrate their move into the new house. The house was continuously occupied by presidents of Eastern Washington University and their families until 1987, when Alexander F. Schilt was selected to be the president of Eastern. He chose to move into a house on Spokane's South Hill which had been purchased by the EWU Foundation instead of living in the University House.

From 1987 to 1998, the presidents of Eastern continued to reside in Spokane, leaving the University House to be used by Eastern in a variety of capacities. It served as a faculty dining hall and club as well as a site for chartered special events and receptions.

In 1998, Stephen Jordan was selected to be Eastern's new president and he chose to live in the University House, thus returning it to its original function. In order to make the house a home again, some remodeling work needed to be done since the Jordans' wanted to restore the house as best they could and return it to its original splendor. The carpet covering the original hardwood flooring was torn out, the "putrid fuchsia" colored walls were repainted, and the kitchen was overhauled and modernized. Ruthie Jordan, the wife of President Jordan, was also able to recover most of the original furniture from storage in excellent condition. She was even able to find the original dining room set that accompanied the house; etched into the leaves of the table was the year 1926. Since the Jordan's departure, the following presidents have continued to reside in the house, keeping the tradition alive.

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You are currently facing the Independent Order of Odd Fellows building, one of only four surviving two story brick commercial buildings in Cheney.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, this building was erected in 1904. In the 1880s, this spot had been occupied by a blacksmith shop, but it had been vacant for over a decade when the Odd Fellows started construction. Once the building was completed, the lower section of the building was rented out to H.H. Schultz and Sons, Clothiers. The upper section of the building held a meeting hall for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a nationally prominent fraternal organization. Lodge No. 21, Cheney's chapter of the organization, was first started in the early 1880s and claimed many of Cheney's most influential and wealthiest men among its members and this continued to be the case for many years after. The upper section was also rented out for other gatherings and functions and became one of the busiest and most used gathering spots in Cheney.

One of the most notable features of the building itself is the faded Garberg's sign painted onto the northeast side of the building, which is the only physical remnant left from when E.E. Garburg's General Store occupied the lower section of the building. Later, a Safeway was located here and a later tenant was a Sears Outlet store. The presence of these big name stores hearkens back to when Cheney was bustling town with a variety of different stores and three movie theaters located in the downtown. However, Spokane's growth into a regional hub and a decline in college students patronage of local businesses by the 1950s caused many stores to close their doors, leading to a decay of downtown Cheney. The final blow was when I-90 was constructed in the late 1960s, which caused most automobile traffic to bypass Cheney entirely.

The Odd Fellows building was a victim of this and it sat empty for a few years until Walter A. "Shorty" Goodwin opened up a barbershop in 1966. Remaining open after Mr. Goodwin's death on May 26, 2000 and operated by one of his close friends Bud Lutein, the barbershop was one of Cheney's longest-running businesses. Today, the building stands vacant due to a number of structural concerns.

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On this spot, bordered by Eleventh and Cedar Streets, stands Eastern Washington University's newest residence hall, snyamncut. This location used to serve as a parking lot for residents of Streeter, Morrison, and Louis Anderson Halls, but on April 2, 2012 ground was broken and construction of the new residence hall began. As the first built in over 40 years, the hall was slated to be mostly completed by June 6, 2013 and completely finished by August 19, 2013.

This new five story residence hall contains 172 rooms with a total of 356 beds. Room sizes vary to include traditional doubles, CA singles, and some triples. Floors two through five are dedicated to housing residents, and on each floor there is a central "core" that includes a social lounge, community kitchen and laundry facilities, and the elevators. The ground floor includes the main entrance and lobby, office space, a common room, and a terrace that will be accessible by residents of snyamncut as well the general student populace.

This new residence hall is a marked departure from the traditional idea of a dorm room. The corridors in the building are designed to be 8 feet wide to create a sense of openness and interaction, as well as allowing occasional seating. The hall also has increased flexibility in floor layouts due to utilizing movable pieces of furniture and efficient room layouts. Each floor on the hall has its own individual full kitchen, complete with stove, oven, and a full-sized refrigerator. The new washers and dryers possess technology to text students when their laundry is done to prevent the "laundry wars" that are a common occurrence in residence halls now. Each floor has two sunrooms that featuring floor to ceiling windows. The new hall was also designed to facilitate social interactions between students and to build a community based around living together as well as being more technologically advanced than the other halls on campus. It hosts its own wi-fi network and is geared towards incorporating new and existing technology to best serve the new residents.

Naming the new hall has been a long and frustrating process. Initially, the university was going to name it after the first donor who donated a million dollars towards the project, but so far, no one has stepped forward and the university was forced to look elsewhere for a name. According to Josh Ashcroft, Chief Housing Officer, the naming process looked for names from the Salish language to honor the history and legacy of the region. Three prospective names were picked and the new residents of the hall voted to choose the final name for the hall. This was the first time in Eastern's history that students helped name a campus building and it will usher in an exciting new era of growth for EWU.

"snyamncut" is the Salish name for "gathering." Since Salish words are not capitalized, the new residence hall follows that tradition. This new residence hall is meant to stand as a place of gathering and community for EWU students.

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