MetroSpokane

Flashback: Behold the Park Tower

Downtown housing was going vertical in the early 70s downtown Spokane.  If you were over 62 and needed subsidized housing then this was your place.  As a building, the Park Tower is just kind of there.  It really doesn't add or detract from the skyline.  It's more neutral than anything.  At the street-level (where it really matters) it relates quite well.  Funny how the rendering emphasizes what is really the alley-side of the building.

"Construction has started on the 20-story Park Tower apartments on Trent and Bernard just south of the Expo '74 site.  It will provide 185 apartments for persons 62 years or older under a federal subsidy program reducing rents for most units.  Long slanted roof at the left is the Washington State Pavilion on the exposition site.  On the right is the design proposal for a 15-story Sheraton Motor Inn of Spokane.  Park Tower is scheduled for completion in late 1974."

Flashback: Kellogg, Idaho - 5-27-96

This one's a bit of a flashback, but if you weren't around the Inland NW you missed the buzz that was going on over in Kellogg, Id that Memorial Day.  From I-90 not much is visible of the massive mining complex that was once Bunker Hill.  Millions of cubic yards of contaminated soil, the temporary rerouting of the South Fork of the CDA River, and well over 200 buildings demolished in what was a huge mitigation and cleanup of a mining superfund site. What most people remember though was the day the stacks came down. 

On Memorial Day May 27th, 1996 the towering stacks (610 and 715 feet tall) were demo-ed in a public event witnessed by thousands.  Fortunately we stumbled across some home video footage taken by a spectator from the hillside across from the stacks.  At first thought you might not think a few smelter stacks coming down has much to do with Spokane. But take one look at our skyline and in it you can see reflected the fortunes that were made and consequently shaped the urban environment we experience everyday.  The Paulsen Buildings, the Great Northern clock tower, the Old National Bank Building, the Spokesman/Chronicle Buildings, and the twin smelter stacks at Bunker Hill.  This stuff is our heritage.

The best minute-and-a-half you'll spend on YouTube all week.

Highlight:  At 0:42 the guy yelling, "HOLY SH#T, LOOK AT THAT THING GO!"

Mapping Louden Swain...

Vision Quest was probably the best movie ever made in Spokane during the 1980s...ok it was maybe the ONLY movie made in Spokane during the 1980s.  Still it's a good flick and captured some great scenes of Spokane during that time period.

In the opening credits of the movie, Louden Swain-the main character-is seen leaving wrestling practice at Thompson High (North Central High School) and jogs to work at the Ridpath Hotel.  Using only the footage from the movie (via YouTube), we've recreated in Google Maps what may be the first attempt at recreating the jogging route Louden Swain purportedly used to get to work...and it's confusing as hell.  According to the movie footage it includes a jog through West Central (vacant Kendall Yards site is visible), the crossing of four bridges, and a run through the skywalk.  Given the sequence of the bridges it would require multiple loops through Riverfront Park.  Who knows...he was trying to drop a lot of weight to wrestle Shute.

• Check out the Louden Swain Jogging Map [Google Maps]

Then and Now: Howard to Browne

Think downtown hasn't changed in the last 50 years?  Today we take a look at a few city blocks that made some headlines this week.  Armed with only a scanner, old maps, and Photoshop we went to work splicing and dicing the above aerial photos.  They show two dramatically different views of the blocks between Spokane Falls Blvd and Main from Howard to Browne.  The photo on the left is obviously current day 2007.  Lots of ashpalt dedicated to the temporary storage of cars and few buildings.  The photo on the right shows the same view but with an overlay of building footprints from 1952.  All colored areas represent buildings with most being multiple stories and almost all brick.

Then and Now: Howard and Sprague

Be sure and GET FLASH...

Imagine for a moment that you were to draw a line on a map north from the Farm-Credit Bank Building (Wells-Fargo) along Howard Street to Spokane Falls Blvd, then left to Wall Street, and back south towards the viaduct;  you've just approximated Spokane's financial district.  For whatever reason these blocks have historically been home to the institutions that financed Spokane's growth over the past one-hundred years.  Wells-Fargo, Bank of America, Sterling Savings, Wheatland Bank, and Bank of Whitman...all are located here even to this day.

Then & Now: Main Avenue and Howard Street

Be sure and GET FLASH...

It's been awhile since the last 'Then & Now'.  This time around we focus on the the intersection of Main and Howard.  Talk about changes in the past seventy years. 

It appears there was a time when the Macy's Building was a bit more interesting than the blank facade with the tiny little windows it currently sports.  The Bennett Block had not fallen victim to the 1960s and the skywalk movement to save downtown. Cyrus O'Leary's and Rocky Rococco's didn't even exist, and instead we had the RITZ Theater.  Parking was still something you did on the streets most of the time and not in the yet to be dreamt-up Parkade.  Most importantly, Main Avenue was still two-lanes in each direction and the hills to the west of downtown were visible reminders of the natural assets of our region.

Then & Now: Union Station

Be sure and GET FLASH...

The years just prior to Expo '74 had to be thrilling times for downtown leaders.  Urban renewal was reaching the end of its life, but was about to play out in Spokane in a big way.  Spokane's big event was just around the corner and before ground could be broken and the river reclaimed there was much work to do.  In fact, literally tons of material from elevated rail lines that for years had smothered the future park needed to be torn down.  Unfortunately, with them came down one of Spokane's most remarkable structures - Union Station.

Then & Now: Howard Street

Be sure and GET FLASH...

When we first saw this color photo of Howard Street from the 1950's we were mesmerized (ok, maybe pretty impressed).  The signage for this strip of downtown is great, and gives the viewer an indication of happenin' downtown Spokane during the midst of the flight to the suburbs.  Back then the Couer d' Alene was a hotel in Spokane and not, well, Couer d' Alene .  Waiting to catcha train at Union Station?  Why not pass the time at the Donkey Room Lounge. 

The resolution is not the greatest, but we hope you enjoy!

MetroSpokane

Then & Now #3 - The Rookery Block

Be sure and GET FLASH...

As we enter the painful final minutes of the life of the Rookery and Mohawk buildings, we decided to put together a Then & Now that shows them in a better time. 

From our archives we pulled up an older photo of Howard Street and Riverside Avenue from the late 1940s.  A point in time when the buildings contributed some life to the area, and well before Wendell Reugh had started assembling the parcels that make up most of the block.  Some things have changed over the past sixty years: fewer people on the street, the addition of a skywalk, one less street clock, a modern office tower, and four lanes for traffic. 

Though we fully expect the Rookery and Mohawk to be gone by the end of summer, the pictures make one thing clear:  that cities change, they evolve, decline, and grow over time.  Many of the buildings in the picture are no longer there...replaced with newer ones that served a better purpose.  We have the same hope for this block.

Then & Now#2 - Old National Bank

Two of Spokane's most recognizable buildings are the Paulsen Building and what many refer to as The Old National Bank Building.  Both are the topic of our second installation of 'Then & Now'.  Years ago the Old National Bank building was probably the most recognizable from a distance not because of its height, but rather due to the massive, green ONB illuminated letters on the top of the structure.  Looking at the images below you can get a good feel for what street-life in downtown Spokane was like before traffic-engineering turned Stevens St. and Washington St. into one-way couplets.  Cars parked at an angle (oh the horror), pedestrians flooded the streets, and if you look closely even the Great Northern clock tower and station are visible. 

Is it us, or does the older image seem like a more interesting place?

Be sure and GET FLASH...

Then & Now...The Empire Block

Spokane has changed dramatically in the past ten years let alone the past one-hundred.  A new series we've begun is to present to our readers images from the distant and not-so-distant past of various parts of Spokane.  We'll then contrast them with a more recent version.

First up, the Empire Block...then and now.  Constructed in 1907, the building has changed little except for the street-level storefront.  The smaller two-story buildings next door were replaced by a modern expansion of the Spokesman-Review offices in the early 1980s.

Be sure and GET FLASH...