A Spokane Redux

                        When we looked at our route that would take us from Seeley Lake, Montana to the Vancouver, Washington/Portland, Oregon area and saw that we were a whiskers width away from Spokane, Washington, we knew that we needed to stop again and visit with Greg and Kim (May 7^th, 2022). We were here a little over two years ago and they graciously gave us a tour of their fabulous little city, Spokane. Here, “little” is not derogatory in any way. Spokane has all of the amenities that a “big” city has but it just feels just a tad more ‘cozy’ than those ‘others’. And that’s a good thing.

                        Spokane (spoke-ann) has obviously been lived in for thousands of years starting with those folks that trudged all over the North American continent, the hunter-gatherers. For our purposes we will fast-forward a few thousand years and drop in here during the late 19^th century, 1881 to be exact, as that is the time that (here it comes….) “the railroad came to town.” Yes, the Northern Pacific Railway arrived that year and two years later, in 1883, gold, silver, and lead were discovered in the area and (here comes another one of my favorite sayings….) “the rest is history”.

                        Now firmly established and growing at a fantastical rate, Spokane found itself building and burgeoning over the next twenty years or so. The Town Fathers (and I’m presuming that quite a few Mothers were kicking them forward at the time) were concentrating on making Spokane the capital of what was referred to as “The Inland Empire”. Railroads, minerals, timber, and furs were all important ingredients to this claim. Hastily built wooden structures from the early 1880’s were just ripe for a devastating fire which presented itself exactly 135 years and 15 days ago. On August 4^th, 1889, a fire started and when it was finished it had destroyed 32 blocks of downtown Spokane.

                        So, that’s where we come in for today.

                        There was a construction boom in Spokane which defied description. More “modern” masonry and steel edifices were becoming the norm which gave the city a more upscale feeling with those accompanying industries following suit.

                        Enter Mr. Llewellyn Marks (Louis) Davenport in the Spring of that fateful year. At just twenty-years old, he came to town from San Francisco to work for the summer in his uncle’s restaurant, The Pride of Spokane.

                                                Fire.

                                                Most of the City went poof!

                                                Young Louis salvaged what he could.

                                                Then he bought a tent.

                                                Davenport’s Waffle Foundry opened.

                                                And flourished!

                        Recognizing an opportunity, Louis quickly leased a brick building on a popular corner and expanded his menu to over a hundred items.

Within a few years, Davenport’s Restaurant was described by a critic as “the finest thing of the kind in the country.” Business was so good, Davenport expanded into an adjoining building within a decade. He hired up-and-coming architect, Kirkland Cutter to make the two buildings appear as one in 1904. Cutter offered a Mission Revival style theme. The white stucco walls and green tile roofs stood in marked contrast to every other building downtown. This remodel added the finest ballroom in the West on the second floor, the Hall of the Doges (modeled after the Doges Palace in Venice). The delicious Crab Louis salad was born here and is now world-famous.

The City recognized a talent when they saw one. Some of the Local Tycoons got together and presented their idea of a what they thought the City needed, a world-class hotel where groups could meet and have outside business partners stay when they came to town.

And they wanted Louis Davenport to run it.

And have his moniker placed upon it ensuring that a highly recognizable, and very successful name would be attached to it.

In the design, Kirkland Cutter was instructed to make sure “no more money than necessary was squandered on exterior ornament”, which resulted in a building with a relatively simple exterior with strategically placed ornamentation but an extremely extravagant interior. 

They built lavishly it in the Renaissance and Spanish Revival styles, the 406-room Davenport Hotel cost two million dollars to complete and included new technologies at the time of its opening in September 1914, such as chilled water, elevators, and air conditioning!  Cutter and Davenport shopped the world for ideas and furnishings for their new hotel. Cutter designed the space drawing inspiration from the great architects of France, England and Spain and decorated the interior with luxurious appointments with fine art and tables dressed in Irish linens from Liddell and set with 15,000 pieces of silver (said to be the largest private commission for Reed and Barton). 

The tower went up in just eight months (with only one construction related death, a rarity at that time) and the hotel opened for business on September 1, 1914.

  Ever since then, the hotel has promoted itself as “one of America’s exceptional hotels.”

And judging by what we saw and the fact that it is now owned by KSL Capital Partners (who also own The Grand on Mackinac Island!) we could not have agreed more.

                                    The hotel offers visitors a pamphlet entitled “Historical Walking Tour”, and it guides you around the ground floor and second floor where the Lobby (now part of the hotel’s restaurant) and the Ballrooms, where a wedding was taking place at the time. Someone was having a “ball” 😊 because they were using all of the ballrooms for their wedding……  Ceremony, Photos, Pre-Dinner Snacks, Dinner, Dessert, and Dancing were all spread out amongst the different rooms! Not sure what that event cost but the Guests seemed to be having a grand time!

                                  However, the entire history of the Davenport is not so grand. As with many of our older establishments, times and proprietors change quickly over the years, and with each new owner visions and operations change, and not always for the best. Eventually, the Davenport fell onto hard times and was just about to be demolished after being closed for about fifteen years. This was in the early 2000’s. Along came a local couple with more than a couple of bucks because they bought the place (they spent $40,000,000 of their own money) and proceeded to put it all back the way it was, and then some! The results are obvious!

                                    During our last trip here two years ago, Kim and Greg toured us around town and showed us some of the other wonderful aspects of downtown Spokane. These are found in the Post aptly entitled, Spokane (from May 7, 2022). Go to the Archives and scroll back. I’m quite sure that you will be as impressed with this “little city” as we were!

                                    Thanks for reading!