Spokane Burns on August 4, 1889!

Last week, we learned about several prominent architects who designed many of the buildings in the business district, as well as many of the upscale homes in the areas around town.  Today, we learn about an event that just about ruined Spokane’s downtown district in 1889.

Spokane experienced a devastating fire on August 4, 1889.  The fire decimated most of the downtown business district, consuming 25 square blocks and destroying 60 brick and stone buildings.  The fire created an opportunity for Cutter’s architecture practice to flourish (along with everyone else’s involved in the reconstruction of Spokane). 

 A previous fire, which occurred in 1883, also affected the future of Spokane’s architecture.  It signaled a need for brick construction.  In his book Spokane and the Inland Empire, Nelson Durham states:

The first considerable fire which left its mark in Spokane startled the city on the night of January 19, 1883.  The conflagration broke out on the coldest night of the winter, in the store of F.R. Moore & Co., and as there was no fire department, the space between Front street and the alley south, comprising F.R. Moore & Co.’s store, Charlie Carson’s restaurant, Forrest’s grocery, Porter’s drugstore and the postoffice [sic], was completely leveled, and Rima’s jewelry store across the alley was torn down to arrest the flames.  It was a heavy loss and could ill afford to be borne, but the losers had resolved almost before the ashes had cooled down, to rebuild with brick.  The year 1883 was thus signalized by a new impetus in building.

Fortunately, only one life was lost in the Great Fire of 1889 – a civil engineer by the name of George Davis.  In terms of lives lost to fires in Spokane, two others hold that record.  In 1892, four men were killed during a fire on Havermale Island.  Six businesses and four houses were also destroyed.  The worst fire on record, for lives lost, occurred January 26, 1898, when the Great Eastern Block burned, killing nine people.  The five story brick building, located at the southeast corner of Riverside and Post, was one of the first business blocks in Spokane.  Following the fire, it was rebuilt as the Peyton Building.  Slight traces of fire damage can still be seen on portions of the building.

When Cutter began his business as an architect, he formed a partnership with John Poetz, who had been educated in structural design and construction management.  Poetz left the firm in 1894 and was replaced by Karl Gunnar Malmgren, who had trained as an architect in his native Sweden.  The Cutter-Malmgren partnership lasted for almost 30 years.  To a great extent, Cutter produced the ideas and Malmgren engineered the plans.  Although the firm often employed other draftsmen, Malmgren was its key engineer.

Cutter’s marriage to the daughter of one of Spokane’s richest and most influential business tycoons appears to have boosted his career.  On October 5, 1892, Kirtland Cutter wed Mary Edwine Corbin, daughter of Daniel C. Corbin.  Following a trip to France in 1898, the marriage ended in divorce.  In the divorce decree Kirtland alleged his wife refused to return to the United States with him; Mary alleged she was sick and unable to travel, and that he left her in France with no means of support.  During the marriage they had a child, Kirtland Corbin Cutter.  A strained relationship between D.C. Corbin and Kirtland Cutter resulted from the divorce.  Corbin was instrumental in keeping Cutter’s son from him, and insisted his grandson’s name be changed from Kirtland Corbin Cutter to Corbin Corbin.  In one of the provisions of Cutter’s will, he states, “I make no provision in this my last Will and Testament for my son, Corbin Corbin, for the reason that his Grandfather, the late D.C. Corbin of Spokane, Washington, in his Will made suitable provision for him on the stipulated condition that his surname be changed to ‘Corbin’.”

Next week we will hear more about this interesting character Kirtland Cutter.