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.

What's most alarming in the photo's above is the drastic loss of anything remotely hospitable towards pedestrians in the nearest block.  Instead of windows and doorways, cavernous concrete garages and delivery trucks make this a deadzone for streetlife.  The concept has been duplicated one block to the south on the back end of the Wells-Fargo building.  Even though online banking has nearly eliminated the need to visit a bank branch, having a presence in Spokane's downtown core still is important for financial institutions.  We just wish they'd leave the drive through banking in the burbs.

Comments

[Barb]

The street level of the Wells Fargo building at least adds another outdoor fountain to Spokane's collection.
Just a little farther south on Howard, and you're in an emerging area. In the building at 2nd and Howard that houses Interplayers, just across and south of Holley-Mason, there's a great yoga studio, Twist (www.twistyogastudio.com) (full disclosure: I go there, and friends of mine are instructors); a hair salon (Ruby); some future apartments (the Metropole), and then one block east and you're at Vino's, Saunders Cheese, and the chocolate place. You're also not far from Wild Sage. The Crosswalk kids keep that edgy urban vibe alive, and it's hardly the financial district, but it's going to be pretty cool.

[Andrew Waddilove]

The biggest change that I've noticed between the two pictures, is that none of the buildings no longer exist from the former picture.
It's amazing how some areas of Spokane are changing left and right, while other parts of the city haven't changed much in decades.