Spokane ‘Splorations

This was our home location while helping our kids move from Kennewick to Spokane. A very pretty park – quiet, clean, green and HOT!

Most of the move went as you’d expect moving to go… the movers did very well, and it was fun to hear them joking around with each other. My grandson turned this from a grandfather clock to a grandson clock!

After the movers packed everything up, we moved to the new house – on some mountain property outside of Spokane. Here’s our home outside of theirs.

For privacy reasons, you don’t get to see their home. Blame it on COVID… everything else is blamed on that!

Below are pictures from a picnic in a park in town.

Bryan and Ashlyn made a fort in a depression in a secret location in their new yard. 😉

They have a neighbor who has built some really cool hot rods.

Spokane Walking Tour

There are several walking tours of old Spokane, and we walked the east end of downtown. As in lots of cities, there is an interesting juxtaposition of old and new. See if you can guess when this building was erected!

The City Ramp Garage, built in 1928, was Spokane’s first parking garage, and is a beauty of Art Deco design.

I believe this is a slightly newer parking garage…

The train station moved to this location in 1891, after a fire burned the previous 3 year old station. In front of the station is a fascinating sculpture : “Bringing Home The Wishing Rock”. A huge stone, connected by heavy cables to pillars, all leaning in an apparent effort to drag the stone along.

This cute Italian Kitchen caught my eye… but not my dinner. Blame that on COVID too.

The Davenport Hotel

Fire destroyed a lot of Spokane in 1889. Young Lewis Davenport had been working in his uncle’s restaurant, and when the city burned down he opened “Davenport’s Waffle Foundry” in a tent. He soon bought a block of the burned city, and built a real restaurant. Then bought the building next door, and remodeled to made it look like all one structure. On the second floor, he created the “Hall of the Doges”, a very opulent dance floor.

The current hotel was built in 1914, replacing most of the old structure, but saving the “Hall of the Doges”. The Davenport Hotel claims to be the first hotel in the country with air conditioning, a central vacuum system, pipe organ, and dividing doors in the ballrooms. Maybe the first with ALL these attributes…

This is the “Hall of the Doges”, an elegant room that was the scene of high society soirees a century ago.

Here is a photo of the room in use many decades ago. (I did not take this photo…)

The Davenport Hotel Tower was the home of Spokane’s first commercially licensed radio station, with broadcasts starting in 1922. KHQ played music from many local groups, including one called “The Musicaladers”. The drummer from that group dropped out of college… and became somewhat famous as a singer. His name was Harry Crosby… better known later as “Bing”.

The grand lobby:

In the 1920’s, you could just say “Meet me at the fireplace”, and it was understood you’d see them at the beautiful fireplace in the Davenport’s lobby. It is kept burning all year, in accordance with founder Davenport’s wishes to create an hospitable atmosphere.