How one prominent Spokanite used racial discrimination to promote his real estate empire.

One of the most prominent families in Spokane’s history is that of the Cowles. William H. Cowles, Sr. came to Spokane in 1891 with a vision of starting his own news company. By 1894 he was the majority owner of the Spokesman-Review, which is still in print and owned by the fourth generation of Cowles. Over the last 130 years the family has taken on many other business ventures. They include investments in the timber industry, KHQ Inc., and several real estate companies.

Born on July 23, 1902, William Hutchinson Cowles, Jr. was raised to understand the empire his father started. At the age of 16, the young man began working for the newspaper. The circulation, the advertising, and the reporting were all very fascinating to him. After graduating from Yale in 1924, he would return home and help grow the family business. One of his first jobs after college would be director of the Inland Empire Paper Company. After his father died in 1946, he took over the reins and further expanded the various business ventures, including becoming more involved in real estate.

A piece of land on the South Hill near where 29th Avenue meets High Drive was owned by the Cowles family. Cowles, Jr. decided in 1953 to divide up the land and sell it off. There were a total of almost 200 homes built across his five subdivisions and they all have one thing in common. Of the 150 or so homes that remain, all of them contain a multiple page document titled “Declaration of Protective Covenants,” which contained a section that restricted homes from being sold to people of color. The third clause of the document states that “No race or nationality other than the white race shall use or occupy any building on any lot, except that this covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race or nationality employed by an owner or tenant.” William H. Cowles, Jr. intentions were to create an all-white subdivision on the South Hill.

In many communities across America, restrictive covenants were often written into property deeds in order to keep people who were not white from living in certain areas. For many years, these covenants were enforceable and those who violated them could lose their property. A case named Shelley v. Kraemer went before the United States Supreme Court in 1948 stating that these racial restrictive housing covenants could no longer be legally enforced.

Why was Mr. Cowles writing racially restrictive covenants several years after the Supreme Court ruled them unenforceable? Even though they were now invalid, private parties were still able to add the language into the deeds. They were meant to tell the potential buyer what type of neighborhood they were moving into. It was not until 1968 that language like this was outlawed completely from all deeds due to the passing of the Fair Housing Act. However, the majority of the original racial covenants still remain in the property records today.

The Comstock Addition and the racial covenants within the property records have been in the spotlight in recent years. In 2016, several homeowners became aware of the covenants and began the process of removing them. However, many other parties have pushed back from having these records erased. They claim that the covenants should be left alone because they are a valuable teaching tool from our past and can be used moving forward. Homeowners who have a home with a racial covenant are now able to file a request through the county auditor to legally get rid of the offensive language from these records. William H. Cowles Jr. passed away in 1970 and the next generation of Cowles took over. Since his passing the family put out a statement disassociating with the covenants. They stated that “such racial segregation is offensive and in no way represents our company or family values.”

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Horse-drawn carriages became less desirable, streetcars and railroads were well established around the county and in the city, and a new contraption called the automobile became the dominant mode of transportation in Spokane.

In the year 1909, Spokane was home to several hundred automobiles. Many of these early automobiles were classified as Tin Lizzies (common cars like the Model T) and delivery trucks. In Jess Walter’s novel, The Cold Millions, several automobiles are present in Spokane. Rye Dolan got to experience one of the finest autos of the time. Before meeting Lemuel Brand, one of the city elites, Rye and Ursula the Great traveled in a fancy Peerless seven-passenger touring which was priced at around $7,000. “Heads turning like royalty was passing” was used to describe those staring at the mechanical piece of art. Having an automobile was a status symbol in those days.

In 1898, H. Henry Wemme, a Portland Businessman, sent a Spokane tent manufacturer named F. O. Berg to New York to acquire a car for him. Sent with a commission, Berg tested many models before taking a touring car back to the Pacific Northwest. Wemme was taught how to operate the contraption, but after a couple of years of failing to get it to go, it was sold to Berg and shipped to Spokane in 1900. He kept it in his possession for over a year and rode over 7,000 miles. Mr. Berg sold it to a laundryman who turned out to be an incompetent mechanic and the last owner of the car. The car was found one day to be held together by wire, rather than nuts and bolts. Traveling up Cannon Hill with several passengers, the laundryman stopped to let a team of horses pass. He then started the car back up when the wire broke, and the front end was destroyed. The occupants escaped, but the car rolled backward down the hill, burning up after impact.

Though Berg claimed to have had the first car in Spokane, that may not be true. A man named Roy Boulter claims to have had one in town several months earlier, though the car failed to run for long and was only seen in public on a couple of occasions. Spokane had some of the first cars on the West Coast. In the year 1902, the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene area was home to nearly 100 automobiles. Dr. C. P. Thomas, who owned a 1900 Franklin, was proud to be one of the first Spokanites with a car. Another doctor, A. A. Franklin, bought a 1906 Maxwell. Regretting his purchase, he sold it soon after and bought a horse. Garages were selling record amounts of automobiles. In the year 1911, over 750 cars were registered within Spokane. That number doubled the next year. The automobile became the dominant mode of transportation in the city.

With no official laws regarding automobiles, many early auto pioneers attempted to push the limits around town. On May 25, 1902, the chief of police at the time, Chief Witherspoon, observed what he claimed was a “horseless carriage” moving through the middle of downtown at a high rate of speed. Jumping off his streetcar, he caught up to the fast and furious driver and issued the man a citation for going upwards of 15 miles an hour. The current law was not to exceed six miles per hour on horseback within the city. However, since most laws were targeted toward horses and bicycles, the charges against the man were dropped since they did not pertain to automobiles. Accidents became frequent as well. Spokane saw its first fatal wreck in November 1908. Miss Mary Nicholls was killed after falling over the edge of a bluff downtown with several other passengers. Fed up with these growing problems, Chief Witherspoon began to issue dozens of ordinances related to vehicles.

By 1920, Spokane had largely completed its transition from literal horsepower to the automobile. Spokanites drove their new horseless carriages past the unused horse rings set in the curbs around town.

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