Around the turn of the last century numerous African Americans migrated from the deep South to Spokane in hopes of building a freer and more prosperous life. In which some of them achieved this with the creation of the Deer Lake Irrigated Orchard Company.

Founded by Peter Barrow in 1910, the Deer Lake Orchard Company consisted of 140 acres of farmland meant to provide an opportunity for Black workers trying in hope of to build their place in the Northwest. With the combined efforts of 45 investors from across the country, $18,000 dollars was raised, $15,600 of which was used to purchase the 140 acres that sat across the lake from Barrow’s homestead.

Barrow's father, Peter B. Barrow escaped to fight with the Union Army during the Civil War. After his military career, which saw him reach the rank of sergeant. Barrow went on to serve in both chambers of the Mississippi state legislature. The racial violence of the Jim Crow South eventually forced him and others to seek more opportunity in the Spokane area where he and his wife helped to found the first Black church in the city.

While Spokane was preferable to the South, it was still not welcoming to Black migrants. The Barrow family like other Black pioneers would have experienced discrimination and limited job opportunities. And like many American Blacks in the Jim Crow era, they turned to entrepreneurship, founding their own businesses. The younger Peter Barrow started his orchard on farmland that had been claimed by his father.

A 1910 Spokesman Review article about the opening of the orchard illustrates how Barrow and early Black Spokanites were received at the time. The article applauded the project but only in its ability “To give work to the idle negroes now about the city and to eventually rid the city of the riff raff population of the colored race.” Barrow was well aware of how public perception affected the opportunities of African Americans and took inspiration from Booker T. Washington who championed the use of skills and labor as tools to advance the Black community. The Deer Lake Irrigated Orchard accomplished this if only for a brief period of time.

The orchard successfully contributed to the growing apple industry that Washington State is known for today. It grew to employ as many as 100 African Americans and eventually reached a net worth of over $175,000, but that success did not last.

The company was only in operation for about 10 years. A combination of monetary and transportation issues challenged its viability, but other regional factors also influenced its fate. One of which was the Arcadia Orchards. The 7,000 acre mega project located near Deer Park briefly dominated the region as the largest apple orchard in the world before it also closed down in 1924.

The company's treasurer, Charles Parker Stewart cut his botanical teeth while working at the orchards and would go on to become a Professor of Botany at Howard University. With the plant samples he had collected still being used today. The legacy of Barrow himself lived on with his son Charles who co-founded the first Black newspaper in Spokane. While Charles' daughter Eleanor, who would marry the first Black mayor of Spokane James Chase. So while the Deer Park Irrigated Orchard Company was not a permanent institution, it had a lasting impact on the Black community in Spokane.

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“I have faith to believe that we have only just begun to see the development of this wonderful section of the United States and I am proud indeed to have been able to add my mite in bringing about these remarkable changes.” - Frederick V. Hoyt

If you look just west of I-90 on Sunset Hill you will see a brick smokestack standing taller and older than the trees around it. On the stack, white bricks proudly spell out “Hoyt,” the last name of the two brothers that founded the greenhouses on that spot; Frederick V. Hoyt and William S. Hoyt. Frederick first visited Spokane in 1882 when the population of the city was 1200. He was a pastor who built several churches while he lived here intermittently. William moved to the area later after being asked to run a flour mill on Havermale Island. In 1894 both brothers joined forces and “Hoyt Brothers Floral Co.” was born.

The business grew slowly but steadily. The first greenhouse they built was in 1900 followed by several more, eventually reaching 6 in total. They produced enough flowers to merit a dedicated shop that they ran on Post and Riverside. In order for the flowers to survive all four of Spokane's seasons, the greenhouses required heating. This was done by heating water with a coal furnace and pumping it through pipes that ran beneath the soil. A few smokestacks were made for this purpose but the largest one, and only one that still stands today, was built in 1916. The Hoyt brothers worked to supply flowers for the ever increasing number of weddings, funerals and other large events that signified just how fast the town was growing.

After managing the greenhouses for 40 years the brothers sold the company in 1929 to the Moncalvos, a family of Italian immigrants who had worked in the greenhouses. But the greenhouse's legacy did not stop there. In the first half of the 1900s the Spokane flower industry grew beyond just filling the needs of Spokanites. The well developed railroad industry allowed Spokane florists to provide flowers for the entire region. In 1940, Spokane even became the 4th largest producer of flowers west of the Mississippi with 20 acres of flowers under glass. Many of the 35 greenhouses that contributed to that number were owned by Italian immigrant families just like the Moncalvos.

Severino Moncalvo ran the business until his son, Rudy, inherited it in 1970. It continued to produce flowers until it was sold in 1983 to Rothrock, a development company. The complex was dismantled soon after with the smokestack left as the only marker of its existence. The stack now stands alone, surrounded by highways and residential areas. Its eroded top still reaches far into the air, a waymarker inviting people to appreciate the deeper history of Spokane.

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