"A visitor in the hospital will see everything in perfect order, the patients cheerful ... and the always kind-faced Sisters ... like angels of mercy."

 In the late 1870s through the late 1880s, surgeries ranging from amputations of limbs to emergency tracheotomies were performed in either the patient’s home or the doctor’s office. Known as “kitchen table surgeries,” these prodedures often led to secondary infections and death. Non-surgical patients who required extended care from diseases such as typhoid fever, diphtheria, and pneumonia were also treated at home. As the population of early Spokane grew, a hospital was needed, and the Sisters of Charity filled the need.

On April 13, 1886, Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart, along with Sister Joseph Arimathea arrived in Spokane Falls. Mother Joseph served as the organization’s architect and project manager. They purchased a piece of land between Front Avenue and Bernard Street where the Convention Center stands today, for $2000. Construction soon began, and by July 2, 1886, the cornerstone of the building was set.  The two-story, brick-faced building, included indoor plumbing with hot and cold running water.

Even before completion, the new hospital admitted its first patient on January 15, 1887. A homeless man named John Cox was brought in with pneumonia.  In poor condition, he expired just a few days later.  

Sacred Heart admitted a total of 579 patients in 1888. During the 1888 epidemic of typhoid fever, the hospital served as the center of care. The majority of the sixteen deaths from this disease occurred within its walls.  Surgeries continued to be done in doctors’ offices or homes for a few years.  In 1893, the hospital received their first operating table, which enabled doctors to perform up to three surgeries a day. With a continued rise in population, in 1907 plans for a new location began. By March of 1910, the new facility located on Eighth and Browne opened with a cost of $800,000, and the old hospital was torn down soon after.

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In 1880, Dr. William P. Grubbe and his companion were attacked by a band of Indians.  His friend and his horse killed, Grubbe grabbed the other horse and rode for his life. In Rockford, Washington he found a town in need of a doctor.

The early Spokane region lacked qualified medical doctors. In frontier towns, anyone could nail a diploma on the wall and begin treating patients. Townspeople saw having a skilled doctor as important as a saloon or newspaper for the growth of their communities.  When Dr. Grubbe rode into Rockford in search of safety, he found a village in need.  Upon hearing that this stranger was a doctor, the townspeople asked him to stay.  He agreed and settled down.

Grubbe, born in Missouri, was no stranger to frontier life.  As a boy, his family immigrated to Portland, Oregon and then to Oakland, California.  After finishing school, he attended a medical college in Salem, Oregon.  Upon graduation, Grubbe started his first practice in Pendleton. In the late 1870s, he relocated his practice near Amity.  After his arrival in Rockford, his built a large rural practice including Spokane, Teoka, Fairfield, and other small towns.  On May 16, 1884, he married the “prettiest girl in Rockford,” Miss Minnie Tozier.  Together they had four children, a boy and three girls.

In  1895, Dr. Grubbe hung up his stethoscope and went into real estate development.  He was elected as Spokane County’s Auditor in 1897 and served one term.  Tragedy struck the successful pioneer doctor when he fell ill with acute meningitis in 1889. He died within days, at the age of fifty-four.  

Minnie, now a widow, was expecting their fourth child.  Just over two months later, she gave birth to their youngest daughter, Willettie. Minnie remarried and moved away.  Their youngest daughter died in 1903.  Despite his premature death, Dr. Grubbe’s story demonstrated the need for qualified doctors in early Spokane.

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Built during Spokane's "Age of Elegance", the Currie house is a fine example of the Queen Anne style of architecture.

Cigar smoking, whisky drinking, mining tycoon John A. Currie built one of Spokane’s most distinctive homes in 1889.

Currie, a real estate and mining tycoon, built his three-story home for an estimated $7000. Located near the Gentleman’s Riding Club and Racetrack, now Corbin Park, Currie and his buddies would watch horse races from the third story turret while smoking cigars and drinking whiskey. In 1891, Lot Slocum, a trotter race horse, broke the speed record at the Gentleman’s Riding Club with a speed of two minutes and seventeen seconds. Currie was also involved with politics. He was elected city councilman for Spokane’s Fourth Ward in 1893. A reporter approached him about running for mayor in 1895. Currie replied “I shall not be a candidate or allow my name as such for any public office this year.”

In 1902, Currie sold his home to James Lake Ford and his wife. Ford moved his family to Spokane from Kentucky after hearing about Spokane’s lucrative business opportunities. He too made a fortune in the mining business and the Ford family lived in the home for 25 years. In 1917, Ford had indoor plumbing installed, however he insisted his family use the outhouse in the backyard. It was not until the sewer lines were built in 1924 that Ford gave in to modern conveniences and demolished the outhouse.

Over the years the Currie House had several different owners and renovations. In 1967, Charles and Evelyn Packard purchased the property. Evelyn loved pink and decided to make over the entire interior and exterior various shades of pink. “The Pink House,” as it became known locally, remained raspberry pink for thirty years. In 1997, Jeff and Kris Dailing purchased the property and with the assistance of Spokane Preservation Advocates the pink siding was removed renovation began to restore the Currie house to its former glory. Their renovation work was featured in HGTV’s “If Walls Could Talk” in November 1, 2001.

The following years have not been kind to the Currie house. The Dailing’s dropped plans to convert the property into a bed and breakfast. Instead they began to rent it to tenants who in turn ruined the ten years of restoration work put into it. Despite being added to Spokane Register of Historic Places in 1999, the Currie House is in poor condition. In 2014, the bank foreclosed on the property and it was put up for auction. The property sold for $89,777 in 2015, and it’s future is unknown.

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"Remembering advice: 'Go West , young man, and grow up with the country'. I packed my trunk, my sheepskin included, crossed the great divide and landed in Spangle in 1880." Dr. Alex MacLeod

Dr. Alexander F. MacLeod, a pioneering medical doctor of the Inland Northwest, built this home in 1902.

After completing medical school, MacLeod immigrated from Nova Scotia to Spangle, WA in 1880. He practiced medicine in Colfax and owned a drugstore in Farmington. MacLeod met and married Miss Addie Brink and they moved their family to Spokane in 1893. Building a comfortable home was a priority. Dr. MacLeod stated: “The territory covered by my practice extended for miles in every direction from town. It was a great thing to have a comfortable home when I returned from those long trips and find a wife to minister to my comfort.”

Dr. MacLeod eventually settled his practice in the Sherman Building in downtown Spokane. He was active in local and other various medical associations including the American Medical Association. Dr. MacLeod cared for patients in the Palouse for 47 years until his death in 1930. In 1920, Dr. MacLeod sold the house to St. Paul’s Methodist Church. Located directly across the street from the MacLeod house, it served as the parsonage from 1920-1945.

Walking around this West Central neighborhood, you will discover many of what were once large homes are now carved into apartments. After World War II, there was a housing shortage for returning veterans and their families. In order to supply the demand many large homes were bought and quickly converted into apartment buildings. The MacLeod house was no exception. In 1945, St. Paul’s Methodist Church sold the property and it was turned into five separate apartments and renamed the Wainwright Apartments.

The MacLeod house remained an apartment building for 55 years. In 2004 Dinah Le Carlson, a sculptor, and her daughter Suzette Carlson Nordstrom, an interior designer, purchased and renovated the property. Dedicated to restoring the MacLeod house, they converted the first and second floors for their businesses. The MacLeod house is currently the home of Lillian Conn Antiques & Interiors and the Carlson Gallery. In 2005 the MacLeod house was added to the Spokane Register of Historic Places which noted the home’s role in community development.

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Religious orders were vital in establishing hospitals in the West. St. Ignatius Hospital is one the first hospitals built in the Inland Northwest by the Sisters of Charity.

Abandoned but not forgotten, St. Ignatius Hospital provided healthcare to the Palouse region from 1893-1964.

In 1892 Rev. Jachern, a Roman Catholic priest, recognized the need for improved healthcare in this area. He traveled to Portland, OR and invited the Sisters of Charity to build a hospital on the Palouse. In order to build hospitals, religious orders across the United States relied on private donations or sponsors for funding. Colfax, Pullman and Palouse City all made competitive offers for the new hospital to be built in their town. With an offer of free water, land, an interest free loan of $3000 and another $5000 promised from the Chamber of Commerce, the town of Colfax won the bid.

On April 17 1893, construction of St. Ignatius Hospital began while three Sisters of Charity provided care in a wooden building located on the site. Their first patient was treated for pneumonia. Construction of the new hospital was completed and opened in 1894, additions were added in 1917 and 1928. The St. Ignatius School of Nursing was established and in 1911 graduated its first class of nurses. By 1936 a separate dormitory for nursing students was opened. Washington State’s first two male nurses, Philip Kromm and Archie McClintic, earned their nursing degree from St. Ignatius School of Nursing in 1941.

Without government assistance, relying on donations and what patients could afford to pay made it difficult for hospitals like St. Ignatius make needed upgrades. The Sisters of Charity were unable to keep up with the expense of maintaining and modernizing the hospital. Facing closure by the state and a declining population, in August of 1964 it was decided to close St. Ignatius Hospital and build a new facility. St. Ignatius Hospital became an assisted living facility until it was closed in 2000. In 2015 the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation added St. Ignatius Hospital to their 2015 Most Endangered Properties list.

Ghosts of patient’s past now roam the halls of St. Ignatius Hospital. Every October small groups of people gather with flashlights and ghost hunting supplies for the annual St. Ignatius Haunted Hospital Tour. F. E. Martin, the hospital’s first fatality, died in 1893. Crushed to death between two railroad cars, his restless spirit reportedly haunts the halls of St. Ignatius Hospital. Filmmakers also visit the hospital in search of ghosts. Despite the hauntings, St. Ignatius Hospital is vacant and in serious need to salvation. Efforts are underway to try and save not only a piece of Colfax’s history, but the history of frontier health care in the United States.

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