Spokane's own professional baseball team has undergone a lot of changes since 1903!

Spokane's baseball club first went by the moniker "Indians" in 1903, following a Spokesman-Review contest. The contest winner actually chose to call them the "Spokane Inlanders," but the newspaper inexplicably changed it to "Indians" a few weeks later.

Early in their career as the Indians, there was not much Native American imagery. This was in keeping with other teams in the Pacific Northwest League at the time, which all had rather plain jerseys and logos. By 1909, native imagery had crept into their printed materials, and by 1914 a man dressed in Native American regalia is seen performing a ceremony on the baseball mound.

When Avista Stadium was built in 1958, it had teepees for ticket booths. This changed as the baseball team decided to become more culturally sensitive. In 1993 when they debut their first official mascot, they introduced OTTO, a blue Spokanasaurus devoid of any Native American imagery. Renovations to the stadium in the 1990s also saw the removal of the teepee ticket booths.

The biggest gesture made by the team was in 2006 when the Spokane Indians worked with the Spokane Tribe to design a logo in Salish, the native language of the Spokane. Fan and Tribe reception was positive, and in 2014, the Indians proudly released jerseys with the Salish logos on them, becoming the first professional sports team to feature non-English characters on an official uniform.

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Baseball was America's national pastime before Spokane was even a city. As the railroads moved across the west, Midwestern baseball promoter John Sloane Barnes moved to Spokane in 1890 to help establish the Pacific Northwest League, comprised of baseball clubs in Portland, Seattle, Spokane, and Tacoma. 1,662 fans showed up for Spokane's first professional game, and while Spokane lost, it went on to win the championship that first year in 1890.

The Spokane team had several names in its early years, including the Bunchgrassers, Blue Stockings, Smoke-Eaters, and the Hawks, but the name we know them by today is the Spokane Indians, which was chosen in 1903 during a Spokesman Review sponsored contest. The Indians have played in several parks, starting with Twickenham Park, Natatorium Park, Recreation Park, and Ferris Field. Initially called Fairgrounds Recreational Park, Avista Stadium was built in 1958 to accommodate a tour from the LA Dodgers. It can hold nine thousand fans and has won field of the year sixteen of the last eighteen years, a national Minor League Baseball honor.

Today, the Spokane Indians play in the Northwest League with the Everett AquaSox, Tri-City Dust Devils, Vancouver Canadians, Boise Hawks, Eugene Emeralds, Hillsboro Hops, and the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. The team averages five thousand fans per game and in 2014 they broke their own attendance record with a total of 193,865 fans going through their gates.

OTTO the Mascot represents the team at home games, named after team vice president Otto Klein. The team has other mascots, Doris the Spokanasaurus, OTTO's female counterpart, and Recycleman, a superhero who saves Avista Stadium through reducing, reusing, and of course recycling.

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This grand building, recently renamed from the Sherwood to the Cutter Building, is one of many Spokane landmarks designed by Kirtland Cutter. Famed architect Kirtland Kelsey Cutter moved to Spokane in 1886 and brought with him European influences from Germany, Switzerland, and England. Opportunity knocked for the young architect in 1889 in the form of the Great Spokane Fire. With so much of the city in ruins, it would be up to architects to rebuild downtown Spokane. One of his great surviving buildings is the Sherwood Building, which was born in 1917.

Kirtland Cutter was fascinated by the Gothic revival architecture that had been popular in Europe and the Americas since the mid-eighteenth century. Characterized by pointed arches, great heights, gargoyles, and its general ornate style, Cutter designed many of his buildings in this style. Neo-Gothic architecture remained popular until the middle of the twentieth century when Modernism became the standard.

The beautiful terracotta gargoyles that adorn the Sherwood building were likely produced in Clayton, Washington. The use of terracotta in the post-Great Fire reconstruction boosted the economies of the clay pits north of Spokane. The Clayton terracotta factories were famous at the time, and their work was used throughout the city on buildings such as the Davenport Hotel and the Spokesman-Review building.The Sherwood Building shines with its terracotta face and many detailed sculptures.

Today, the Sherwood Building is being primed for extensive renovations aimed at turning the Cutter masterpiece into 60,000 square feet of office space and retail shopping.

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As Spokane grew in size and importance, it became apparent that the city would need a stadium for local and visiting sports teams as well as traveling music acts.

The decision to build came before there were any funds to pay the contractors. As the Spokesman Review described on opening day, "That's how it was built. First they decided to give Spokane a Stadium, Then they hired a contractor and agreed on the price, then they started out to get the money."

When Spokane Memorial Stadium was opened in 1950, local high schools finally had somewhere to play football and other field sports. Famous musicians had a place to play for large audiences in Spokane.

In 1962, Spokane Memorial Stadium was renamed Joe Albi Stadium to honor local attorney and sports fan Joseph A. Albi who had died that year. A statue built in his honor in 1997 can still be found in the southwest corner of the bleachers. "Joe Fan" is often dressed in school colors for sporting events. Perched on a high band over the Spokane River, the stadium is in its seventh decade of service to Spokane.

Throughout the years, many large events have happened at the stadium. Spokanites were treated to the King when Elvis Presley played there in 1957. Spokane's annual marching band competition, the Sounds of Thunder Pacific Northwest Marching Band Championships is held in the fall at the stadium. It is also home to Spokane's four soccer leagues: The Spiders, the Shadows, the Black Widows, and the Shine. Seven preseason exhibition NFL games have been held at Joe Albi Stadium.

The city of Spokane recently voted to sell Joe Albi Stadium and its surrounding area for housing development. An effort has been made by an organization called the Friends of Joe Albi to raise the funds necessary to keep the stadium open. They are also hoping to make improvements to the stadium such as newer, better quality astroturf and covering the stadium with a dome.

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