Benewah Milk Bottle (Revision...I need pics)

Modern Benewah Milk Bottle

            The Benewah Milk Bottle located at 321 Cedar Street just off I-90 is an unmistakable downtown Spokane landmark.  It was designed by famed Spokane architectural firm Whitehouse and Price (responsible for many other buildings in Spokane including the Hutton Settlement, the Rosebush House, and the John A. Finch Memorial Nurses Home, all NRHP listed),[1] and built in 1935.  It is a remarkable example of “mimetic” or literalist architecture, which seeks to combine form and function, allowing the building itself to become its own best advertisement.[2] 

Originally owned by Paul E. Newport, the current Benewah Milk Bottle was (not surprisingly) the home of the Benewah Creamery Company, where Newport sold products from his nearby dairy farm.  The owner initially planned to build six of these iconic retail outlets – at a whopping $3,700 each – but only completed two (the Cedar location and a sister store on Garland Avenue) because the Depression-Era economy made the cost prohibitive.  Newport operated his creamery from the Milk Bottle until 1978, and since then the building has served many purposes, few of which have had anything to do with dairy products.  Interestingly, it has even been the home of the Spokane County Democratic Committee.[3]

            Fascination with this building has never waned.  The Milk Bottle was nominated to the National Registry of Historic places in 1985, and it continues to be a favorite attraction to this day.  In fact, Time.com listed it as one of the top fifty American Roadside Attractions in 2010, and numerous other websites include it as a must-see sight while driving through Spokane (especially since it’s visible from the freeway).[4]  This easily accessible location also makes the Milk Bottle a popular walk-by destination.  Although its sister store was badly damaged in a fire in 2011 and has subsequently been restored, the Benewah Milk Bottle is still in good shape after seventy seven years.[5]

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[1] “Harold C. Whitehouse,” from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_C._Whitehouse;  “Spokane Mid-Century Modern Architecture List,” from the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation website, http://www.dahp.wa.gov/sites/default/files/SpokaneMidCenturyBuildingList_0.xls; Eastern Washington University Digital Archives, http://econtent.library.ewu.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Fwhitehouse;

[2] NRHP Nomination Form, “Milk Bottle Building was Retail Outlet for Benewah Creamery,” from the Spokesman Review Online, http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/nov/22/milk-bottle-building-was-retail-outlet-for/;

[3] “Milk Bottle Building was Retail Outlet for Benewah Creamery,” from the Spokesman Review Online, http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/nov/22/milk-bottle-building-was-retail-outlet-for/.

[4]“Milk Bottle,” house nominated to list,” Spokesman Review, November 12, 1985, “Top 50 Roadside Attractions,” from the Time website, http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2006404_2006095_2006102,00.html.

[5] “Fire Destroys Ferguson’s Café, Badly Damages Milk Bottle,” Spokesman Review Online, http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/sep/26/milk-bottle-fergusons-badly-damaged-fire/.

Woman's Club (Revision...I need more pictures)

Woman's Club, Modern Interior

The Spokane Woman’s Club is a beautiful and enduring fixture of Spokane’s South Hill neighborhood. Although the structure visitors see today has benefited from periodic additions and modifications over time, the building originally constructed in 1929 was largely as one sees it now. This was, however, not the first structure. The first iteration of the Woman’s Club was a small clubhouse built in 1910, situated on the site of the current Club. In 1928, the members replaced it with a larger building, designed by renowned Spokane architect Gustav Perhrson, who also designed the Garland Theater, the Roosevelt Apartments, and the Paulsen Building among many other notable Spokane sites.[1]

The history of this building really begins with the formation of the Spokane Women’s Club in 1905. Shortly thereafter, the Club organized itself under the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC). These larger women’s organizations were by and large a product of the late nineteenth century Progressive Era in which women, unable to vote until 1920, instead exerted influence through a variety of associations on a wide range of causes such as temperance, children’s education, better sanitation, and better working environments. Woman’s Club scrapbooks going back to 1910 (currently archived at the Spokane Museum of Art and Culture) indicate that its members were involved in all of these causes and others. According to a Spokesman Review article from 1912, women also used the Club for more recreational pursuits, such as china painting, water color design and other things classified as “women’s education” in the early twentieth century. In the mid-1930s, the Woman’s Club hosted a wide variety of programs under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration, created in the midst of the Great Depression by the Roosevelt administration to get people back to work.[2]

It seems that the Club members had substantial clout with the community, too. Membership rolls from as far back as 1905 suggest that the Club had a consistent and vibrant membership neighborhood from its inception, including prominent residents of the affluent Browne’s Addition. Indeed, the Woman’s Club and others like it likely played a significant role in securing Women’s Suffrage in the State of Washington in 1910, a full decade ahead of the nineteenth Amendment.[3]

Modern Interior

The Woman’s Club has been carefully preserved over the years and still retains its original charm. All of the architectural features are in near-perfect condition, including a beautiful terra cotta lunette inscribed with the Club’s motto, “The Club that Bids You Welcome,” over the entrance way, beneath which is a rectangular panel bearing the Club’s name. The Woman’s Club is used by a number of groups for a wide variety of community events, and is rented out for the occasional wedding reception or family reunion. It is, however, first and foremost still the meeting place for the modern GFWC whose “members [are] dedicated to strengthening their communities and enhancing the lives of others through volunteer service.”[4] The Spokane Woman’s Club, which stands today a striking example of early twentieth century commercial-style architecture, is testament to this dedication.

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[1] City of Spokane Historic Preservation Office, “Roosevelt Apartments,” and  “the Paulsen Building,” http://properties.historicspokane.org/; “The Garland Theater” from the Cinema Treasures Website, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/11431;

[2] “Secrets of Spokane Woman’s Club Allurements Discovered and Divulged by Merciless Males,” Spokane Spokesman Review, December 8, 1912; “Adult Classes Liked by Many (1936),” Wallis and Mary Kimble Northwest History Database, Washington State University Archives; Set Style Show for Friday Night (1937),” Wallis and Mary Kimble, WSU Archives; “WPA Classes Display Work (1938),” Wallis and Mary Kimble, WSU Archives.

[3] “Women’s Suffrage” from the Washington Women in History website, http://www.washingtonwomenshistory.org/themes/suffrage/default.aspx;

[4] “The General Federation of Women’s Clubs” from the GFWC website, http://www.gfwc.org/gfwc/default.asp.

First Congregational Church (Revision)

First Congregational Church, 1960s (WA State Archives)

First Congregational Church (now called Westminster Congregational Church), located next to Lewis and Clark High School, has a long history that begins in 1938 when Congregationalists began to arrive in the Spokane area.[1] A group working with the local Indian tribes coalesced over the decades, eventually forming a church in 1879 that met in the home of Henry Cowley, who also became the first pastor, then met for two years in the local schoolhouse.[2] The church built its first building (a small wood structure) at the corner of Sprague and Barnard in 1881, but sold it shortly after the Great Fire of Spokane in 1889. In the aftermath, under the leadership of the renowned revivalist Jonathan Edwards who served as pastor from 1886 to 1891, the members sold the land and moved to the present location, building a new church in 1893. This structure was built of stone, sending the intentional message that First Congregational Church was committed to the rebuilding of the city and that it was there to stay. The bell installed in the tower was a gift from Rev. Cushing Eells, one of the founding Congregationalists from the earliest period, and it served not only to call Sunday-morning worshippers, but as the warning bell for the Spokane Fire Department.

The building has evolved significantly over the years, most obviously in 1926 with the reinforcement of the main spire on the northwest corner (which altered its conical shape to create the current square shape) and the addition of a tower on the east corner where there was originally an open porch. These alterations were undertaken primarily to expand the interior space; aside from the additions, the exterior stone was left intact. This is important, as the uneven coursework is an unusual, even iconic feature that sets the church apart from others.

First Congregational Church, NW Corner (Spokane Library)

The Church has been central to Spokane society for almost 130 years, hosting not just Sunday services, but many other notable events including revival meetings, holiday rallies, and community events.[3] Having benefitted from grants by the Spokane Preservation Advocates’ Heritage Fund, First Congregational Church is still in excellent condition, and it remains a beloved Spokane landmark.

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[1] HRN nomination; Jonathan Edwards, An Illustrated History of Spokane County (H.L. Lever Publishers, 1900), 163.

[2] “A Brief History of Westminster Congregational UCC Church” from the Westminster UCC website, http://www.westminsterucc.org/Exploring/WestminsterHistory/tabid/58730/Default.aspx; Clifford M. Drury, A tepee in his front yard: a biography of H. T. Cowley, one of the four founders of the city of Spokane, Washington, 1949; Edwards, An Illustrated History of Spokane, 164.

[3] Spokane Spokesman Review, September 23, 1913; Spokane Spokesman Review, December 23, 1894.

Lewis and Clark High School (Revision)

Lewis and Clark High School in the 1960s (WA State Archives)

Old South Central (Spokane Library)

After the fire (Spokane Library)

Interior, 1920s (Spokane Library)

Lewis and Clark High School was not always the magnificent landmark it is today. In fact, it was founded in 1883 as schoolhouse, Central School, which became the high school when the city built separate elementary schools to accommodate the steady population growth in the last years of the nineteenth century. With the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1880,[1] Washington State efforts to attract immigrant labor[2] made it necessary to fund a new, larger high school. In 1891 the city built South Central High School where Lewis and Clark is located now, and the city built a second high school (North Central) north of the Spokane River in 1908. Tragically, the original South Central High School was gutted by fire in 1910, leaving only an unsalvageable exterior shell. After moving all of the students to North Central High school, the city built a new high school, designed by renowned Spokane architect L.L. Rand (also responsible for the Masonic Center, the Hotel Upton, and numerous other now-historic buildings), on the foundation of the old; this is, by and large, the spectacular Collegiate Gothic Style building that stands today.[3]

In addition to the beautiful structural detail dominated by the clock tower and the main entryway reminiscent of fifteenth-century European Gothic cathedrals, the school features a massive central theater with a full-size stage and proscenium, carefully restored to its original splendor when the city renovated the school in 2001 and added modern gym facilities. The halls of the school are lined with artwork and other gifts from past graduating classes, making the school itself a sort of museum. The High School also maintains a rich trove of digital historical information, documenting the 100-year anniversary celebration, a page devoted to LC war memorials, and even a digital archive of yearbooks stretching back to 1908.

Classroom, 1920s (Spokane Library)

As one might imagine, Lewis and Clark High School is of central importance to the community of south western Spokane, serving as host and gathering place for a wide range of events. It is the largest school in the district with around two thousand students, and has produced some notable graduates including Washington State’s current Secretary of State, Sam Reed, and Scott O’Grady, the Air Force pilot shot down over Bosnia in 1995.

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[1] The Official Northern Railway Guide, (St. Paul: W.C. Riley, 1899),  222

[2] “Building Washington’s Future: Immigrant Workers’ Contributions to Our State Economy,” from the We Are America website, http://www.weareoneamerica.org/sites/default/files/Immigrant_Contributions_to_Our_State_Economy.pdf;;

[3] “Lewis and Clark High School” from the Spokane Public Schools website, http://www.spokaneschools.org/Page/333; “Lewis and Clark High School,” Historic Registry Nomination.