In 1903, Spokane reported to have 7 millionaires!

Early in Spokane’s history as a city, an area then called “The Hill” developed simultaneously with Browne’s Addition (named for the early Spokane settler, John J. Browne).  “The Hill” was on the south side of the city below the Manito plateau, roughly between Stevens and Monroe.  As the people and the wealth from the mines poured into Spokane, mansions began appearing in this area.  In 1896, F. Lewis Clark, owner of the C&C Flour Mill in downtown Spokane, built a mansion at 701 West Seventh Avenue, and the following year, Daniel C. Corbin and his son, Austin Corbin II, began construction of two colonial homes on Seventh Avenue.  Austin’s home at the end of Post Street, the more palatial of the two, cost $33,000.  Daniel Corbin’s home at the end of Stevens Street originally cost $17,000.  The cost figures all appeared in “The Chronicle” on January 6, 1899.  Other mansions followed as Spokane basked in its “Age of Elegance”, and by the year 1900, the city of Spokane was bursting with expansion.  Hundreds of city lots were surveyed, platted and awaited buyers.  In 1903, the Spokesman-Review boasted, “Spokane has 7 millionaires.”  A new upscale neighborhood was taking shape and expanding in a residential area around what is now Manito Park.

Bibliography:  “Manito Park: A Reflection of Spokane’s Past” by Tony and Suzanne Bamonte, 1998.