City guide
8 buildings worth a detour, each with what to look for. Open them on the map, or walk them with the iPhone app, which collects each one you photograph.
The buildings that define the city's architecture.
novelty architecture
The Benewah Milk Bottle is a milk-bottle-shaped building on South Cedar Street in downtown Spokane, completed in 1935 by Paul E. Newport, owner of the thriving Benewah Dairy Company. It's a classic piece of literalist advertising architecture, one of two such bottle buildings the company built in the Spokane area, and it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Photo: unknown , Public domain
The Bing Crosby Theater is a performing arts venue in downtown Spokane designed by theater architect Edwin W. Houghton and originally built in 1914 as the 800-seat Clemmer Theater. Local singer Bing Crosby performed there regularly between August and October 1925, and after decades of change the theater was renamed in his honor in 2006.
Photo: Murderbike , Public domain
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes is a Romanesque Revival Catholic cathedral in downtown Spokane, seat of the Diocese of Spokane, with a cornerstone laid in 1903 and the building completed in 1908. Its roots trace to 1881, when Jesuit priest Joseph Cataldo celebrated Spokane's first mass in a converted carpenter's shop he named St. Joseph Church.
Photo: Mike Tigas , CC BY 2.0
The Fox Theater is a 1931 Art Deco movie palace in downtown Spokane, designed by architect Robert C. Reamer as part of William Fox's expanding Fox Film Corporation empire. It showed films continuously from its September 3, 1931 opening until it closed in September 2000, and now serves as a performing arts venue and home of the Spokane Symphony.
Photo: Murderbike , Public domain
The Old National Bank Building, now the U.S. Bank Building, was completed in 1910 as the first skyscraper in the Inland Northwest, built as the headquarters of the Old National Bank of Spokane after the institution grew into a major regional force following its 1891 founding. Its design was chosen through a national competition, won by the Chicago firm D.H. Burnham & Company.
Photo: Wbartsma , CC0
The Spokane City Hall Building is a historic Chicago School structure designed by German-born architect Julius Zittel and built in 1912. It served as Spokane's seat of government until 1982, when the city moved offices into a former Montgomery Ward department store, and it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Photo: Publichall , CC BY-SA 3.0
Landmark
The Davenport Hotel is a historic downtown Spokane hotel designed by architect Kirtland Cutter and built in 1914 for $2 million, roughly $200 million today. It was commissioned by a group of Spokane businessmen who wanted a place to host and entertain guests, and it's named for Louis Davenport, the influential businessman who served as its first proprietor and overseer.
Photo: Murderbike , Public domain
Worth a stop when you're nearby.
The Central Steam Heat Plant, known today as Steam Plant Square, was built in 1917 by the firm Cutter & Malmgren to provide steam heating to more than 300 buildings in downtown Spokane, a job it performed until the 1980s. In the 1990s it was converted, along with the adjacent Seehorn-Lang Building, into a commercial, retail, and restaurant center.
Photo: Will Maupin , CC BY-SA 4.0
.jpg){kind=link}
