Let's Meet Mr. Frank Grinnell...

This week’s segment deals with the change in the neighborhoods in Spokane following the exhumation and relocation of the cemeteries in Spokane that lied inside the city limits.   As we continue throughout the story, we will begin seeing how the new neighborhoods around our beloved Manito Park, and other areas of Spokane, get burgeoning growth.  All of the information reported here comes from a book by Tony Bamonte and Suzanne Schaeffer Bamonte entitled, , “Manito Park:  A Reflection of Spokane’s Past”.  You can learn more about this book at  www.tornadocreekpublications.com.  

Following the removal of Mountain View Cemetery from Cannon Hills, a rich showcase of homes, built in the late 1880s to about 1913, filled in the surrounding neighborhood.  During the depression years of the 1930s, many of the large older homes were converted to apartments.  Later, because of lenient zoning regulations, numerous apartment houses were built on many of the remaining lots.  A number of social-rehabilitation homes have also been concentrated in this area – typically located in some of the original homes.  In the era of the original single-family homes (classified as Grid #40 on the Spokane real estate maps), this area was one of Spokane’s most beautiful locations, inhabited largely by medical and business professionals.  The styles of homes in this neighborhood were eclectic, ranging from Victorians and American Four-Squares to Colonial Revivals.  By the time the Manito Park neighborhood began to develop, the Cannon Hill area was fairly populated.  There was a natural geographical corridor between the two areas, making Manito Park a favorite and frequently used recreation area for Cannon Hill residents.

By 1907 the Manito area entered a steady growth pattern.  During that year, Jay P. Graves hired Fred Grinnell, a seasoned real estate salesman, to sell his property.  Grinnell owned one of the largest real estate companies in Spokane.  His office was located at the intersection of Main and Lincoln Streets on the main floor of the Interurban Terminal Building (now the location of the main branch of the Spokane Public Library.)  Upon assuming the sales of the Spokane-Washington Improvement Company’s land for Graves, he set up an office at the southwest corner of 29^th and Grand, and later added a smaller office at the intersection of 21^st and Grand, across from Manito Park.  Grinnell had a reputation for aggressively pursuing the city to comply with the conditions of the park land donation. 

Next week, we will learn more about Grinnell, his advertising practices, and how he populated the area around Spokane’s beloved Manito Park.  Be sure to click over to www.ManitoPark.org or to www.ManitoParkOrg.blogspot.com for the latest chapter.