Washington - Spokane - Buildings

Spokane's Buildings



North of downtown, Division Street (US Routes 2/395 west and south) at North Foothills Drive.


The old mill sits just past the end of Howard Street at Mallon Avenue.


Heading west on Broadway Avenue from Post Street, there are buildings being demolished and preserved on both sides.


There are also these enticing views of a tall tower.


That tall tower belongs to the Spokane County Court House, in Spokane City, by the Spokane River. This would be like renaming the Hudson River to the New York River.


Architecture at the front entrance. The courthouse was started in 1893 as a response to the financial panic of that year and opened in 1895.


Looking southwest across the river, these towers belong to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes.


That'll take me across the river to the 1914 Clemmer Theatre, recently renamed for the Spokane local who performed there for several months in 1925, on Sprague Avenue at Lincoln Street.


On the southwest corner of Monroe Street and 1st Avenue.


Another cool building, looking east along 1st Avenue from there. I'm going to skip the coolest building and head east to the other side of downtown next, since "best for last" is the Alps' Roads motto.


The City Ramp Garage just might be the second-coolest building. Opened in 1928 by a coalition of business owners who decided they needed it, it was the first modern-style multilevel parking garage in the city, and really one of the first at all. Instead of being dull concrete all over, it looks like a regular office building and gets all the architectural treatments Art Deco has to offer. Also the first Art Deco building in Spokane, it's at the northeast corner of 1st Avenue and Stevens Street.


The next building east is also interesting, dating to before World War I as you can hopefully read.


The Paulsen Dental and Medical Building, another Art Deco establishment that opened in 1929, is a block north from the Hutton Building, but I didn't go by it. This photo looks southwest from Browne Street upon crossing the Spokane River.


Plenty of ads adorn this building on the south corner of Browne Street and Main Avenue.


Looking east along 2nd Avenue from Browne Street, here's The Place for You.


This is what I skipped: The Davenport. This Mission-style hotel opened in 1914 and is grand in both scale and accoutrements. These views head west along Sprague Avenue between Post and Lincoln Streets.


These views head east along 1st Avenue on the south side of the building.


Here are a bevy of architectural details from the walls of the building that may not have jumped out in my wide-scale photos, from top to bottom.


The front awning gets in on the embellishments. Apparently it opened as "Davenport's Hotel" in possessive form.


I've saved the best details for last: the pareidolia between the windows and the repeating goat heads just one story from the ground. Why so many goat heads? Why the caduceuses? And the armored helmets? What sort of Masonic or anti-Masonic symbolism is this?

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