According to the book, “Manito
Park: A Reflection of Spokane’s Past”:
In 1892 Cook converted the little wood-burning trolley to
electricity, which was purchased from Washington Water Power. It continued to shuttle people to and from
his Montrose Park building sites, but there was little profit for Cook. He struggled to sell the building sites and
meet his expenses. There were only a few
dirt roads and no water service.
Consequently, the new Montrose Park area remained mostly
undeveloped. Mirror Lake and the
pavilion, built at the time of Spokane’s first fair in 1886, were the main
attractions. With the expectation of a promising future, the Cooks borrowed
$40,000 on a three-year promissory note from Northwestern and Pacific
Hypotheebank on July 19, 1892. As
collateral for the note, the Cooks offered 460 acres of land, including the
area on which most of Manito Park and Manito Boulevard lies today, extending
from about 17th to 37th Avenue. No doubt, this note helped finance further
development, and the construction of Cook’s beautiful home, with its lofty view
of the city and Mt. Spokane in the distance.
This nine-bedroom home was the first significant residence on the Manito
Plateau.
Unfortunately, the Cooks could not foresee the economic
panic that was to occur the following year, resulting in the worst depression
since the 1870s. On June 27, 1893,
silver hit an all-time low of 77 cents per ounce. With the resulting shutdown of many mines throughout
the country and a collapse of the stock market, the nation entered into a
four-year depression. Many of Spokane’s
tycoons lost their fortunes.
Next time we’ll hear what happened to Cook during this
downturn of 1893 and beyond. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment