By Zachary Wnek
Prominent architect Albert Held designed the Amman Apartment building. Albert Held was raised in Minnesota, where he attended the University of Minnesota's Architecture program. Albert Held initially pursued a career after graduation, and…

By Zachary Wnek
The Knickerbocker is a luxury apartment complex. It was built in 1911 with mine owners and other wealthy businessmen in mind. Graham E. Dennis, who built the building, lived in one of the apartments until he sold the Knickerbocker in 1924 to…

By Zachary Wnek
Judge John Blinkley built the Montvale Block in 1899. The Montvale Block was as a Single Resident Occupancy hotel, which meant that much like a hotel each tenant had their own room as a measure of privacy. The Single Resident Occupancy or SRO…

By Zachary Wnek
The hotel located on the 1100 block of W. 1st Avenue has changed hands many times from when it was built in 1911. In 1911 the Single Residence Occupancy hotel, or SRO, was named the Willard Hotel. In 1921 the building changed hands and became the…

By Zachary Wnek
In the early 1900s life was changing. As cities grew, real estate close to the city centers was becoming sparse and expensive. Public transpiration options in many cities, such as Spokane, was not readily available which made living outside of the…

By Zachary Wnek
Leydford B. Whitten (commonly refered to as L.B. Whitten) moved from Virginia to Spokane County in 1880 after having initially moved west to The Dalles, Oregon. L.B. Whitten was a curious man who was trained as a master carpenter before leaving…

By Lee Nilsson
By the end of the 19th century, after generations of hard frontier living and occasionally violent interactions with the native population, the United States had firmly established itself in the northwest. Many of the frontier forts and military…

By Lee Nilsson
The 24th Infantry regiment contained the famous all-black "Buffalo Soldiers" who had fought bravely in the capture of San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War. The regiment had endured many hardships. Only 24 of the 456 men of the…

By Lee Nilsson
It was the night of August 14th 1916 and Edward F. Mayberry was on the run. Three witnesses had seen Mayberry murder 35 year old Native American woman Alice Vivian on the Colville Reservation near Keller, Washington. The heavily armed young man…

By Lee Nilsson
When Fort George Wright was constructed in the 1890s, effort was made to ensure a proper final resting place could be afforded the men who died there while serving in the military. A peaceful spot was selected away from the main base, overlooking…

By Lee Nilsson
Training for combat at Fort George Wright gave way to recovery and recuperation during the Second World War. In 1941, Fort Wright had changed hands and become part of the United States Army Air Force. Being used as a base hospital for its first…

By Lee Nilsson
The Fort George Wright monument tells the story of the fort from its creation in 1895 to its acquisition by the Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute in 1990. The Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute has started many initiatives to maintain the historic…

By Lee Nilsson
Col. George Wright would be shocked to find a symbol of the continued survival of the Native American cultural tradition at the military base that bore his name. Yet the Fort Wright Totem Pole stands for all to see near the Mukogawa Institute…

By Allie Todd
The Australian Sundial was commissioned by Australia as a gift for Spokane after the world fair in 1974. Sister Paula Mary Turnbull was asked to build the sundial, and it was completed in 1976. She designed the 7 foot high, hollow steel dial with…

By Jesse Roberts
Riverfront Park's Looff Carrousel is one of America's most beautiful and well preserved, hand-carved wooden carousels. It has 54 houses, a giraffe, a tiger and two Chinese dragons, all of which are hand carved. Charles I. D. Looff built…

By Jesse Roberts
You are looking at the City Ramp Garage. Built in 1928, this structure represents many firsts in Spokane history. It was Spokane's first mulit-level, staggered-floor, ramp-type parking garage. At the time of its construction, parking for…

By Jesse Roberts
The city of Spokane began as a small cluster of buildings on the south side of the falls, focused around saw mills and and later flour mills. This is why the city was originally named Spokane Falls. After the 1889 fire had burned much of the city it…

By Jesse Roberts
The Great Western Savings and Loan building was constructed in 1900. It was originally named the Empire State Building, for the Empire State - Idaho company. The building was paid for by Charles Sweeny and F. Lewis Clark, who also funded the…

By Jesse Roberts
You are looking at the old Montgomery Wards building, now Spokane City Hall. The site of this building is wonderfully situated. It over-looks the Lower Spokane Falls, is next to Riverfront Park, and is in the Central Business District of Spokane. …

By Jesse Roberts
Spokane's Old City Hall was built in 1912-1913. The structure was intended to temporarily house the government of Spokane until funding could be raised for the constructions of a larger and more grand structure. The building was designed to…

By Jesse Roberts
You are looking at the Miller Block, built in 1890. Stanley Miller, a co-proprietor of the Spokane Ice Company, bought this land and had a two story wood-post building constructed in 1887. This building burned down during the great fire of 1889. …

By Lacey Sipos
The symmetrical tall sculpture in front of you was created by George Tsutakawa in 1974. George Tsutakawa has created fountains all over the United States and Japan. In congruence with Mr. Tsutakawas design style, the Aluminum Fountain is a superb…

By Lacey Sipos
This sculpture with the austere expression was dedicated on July 2, 1992. This abstract sculpture was given to Spokane by our former sister city Makhachkala. The sculpture represents Shamil, an anti-Russian resistance hero during the Caucasian War,…

By Lacey Sipos
The sculpture in front of you is called The Call and The Challenge. It was erected by Ken Spiering in 1986 to commemorate Sacred Heart Medical Center's 100th year anniversary. The piece depicts Mother Joseph, a Sister of Providence, laying…

By Lacey Sipos
This twenty-foot cement statue was originally titled Untitled, but was quickly renamed The Lantern due to its striking closeness to that of a Japanese lantern. A disarray of geometric cut-outs allows Spokane's eminent Clocktower to be visible…

By Lacey Sipos
From 1955 to 1975, more than 3 million Americans fought in Vietnam. Almost 60,000 U.S. soldiers were killed, and more than 150,000 wounded in combat. Almost every community across the United States, from large cities to small farm towns, felt the…

By Lacey Sipos
The magnificent fountain in front of you, almost never transpired from vision to reality. When Riverfront Park was renovated following Expo '74, an entertaining children's fountain, as well as an aesthetically pleasurable art piece was…

By Lacey Sipos
What's that in the river? The stainless steel sculpture floating in the Spokane River was created by Harold Balazs in 1978. It was dedicated to the city in 1981 in celebration of the City of Spokane's centennial year. Harold Balazs is a…

By Jaime Mahoney
The building you are currently standing in front of is the Spokane County Courthouse. Although it looks like an old, romantic European castle, it is actually the place where the county's first public hanging took place. On March 30, 1900 George…

By Jaime Mahoney
You are standing at the grave of Jacques "Jaco" Finlay (1769-1828). Finlay was a Canadian trader for The Northwest Company. Jaco's father, James Finlay from Scotland, established a fort in Canada and married a woman from the Saulteaux…