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.

Soon-to-be Famous Architects Begin Work in Spokane

The upscale areas of early Spokane, especially during the “Age of Elegance”, were designed with a strong European influence.  Both of Spokane’s earliest and most prominent architects came from Germany.  Herman Preusse was born in Germany in 1847.  When he was three years old, his father died and his mother married one of Germany’s leading architects.  Under his influence, Preusse received one of the finest architectural educations in Germany.  Combined with the practical experience received in his stepfather’s office, he gained early recognition as one of Germany’s upcoming young architects.

Realizing the opportunities in America, a young and booming nation, Preusse moved to New York in 1870.  Following a number of successful career moves in the United States, he settled in Spokane Falls in 1882.  Preusse hired Julius Zittel upon Zittel’s arrival in 1887.  Zittel was only 18 years of age, but within six years, his ability led to a partnership with Preusse.    The partnership lasted for 18 years.  They designed and supervised some of Spokane’s finest buildings, including Gonzaga College, St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Carnegie Library, and the Auditorium Theatre.  [The Auditorium Theatre, located at the northwest corner of Post and Main, boasted the largest stage in the world upon completion in 1890.  The list of attendees at the opening production read like a “Who’s Who” in Spokane.]  Herman Preusse was Spokane’s first professional architect, and only one of four architects listed in the 1888 Spokane Falls directory.  By 1906 there were over 40 architects listed.  Some of the most prominent were to design houses for the newly-developing Manito area.

Kirtland K. Cutter, Spokane’s famous architect, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1860.  His father, a banker with the Merchant’s National Bank of Cleveland, provided young Cutter with a comfortable lifestyle.  However, he was greatly influenced by his great grandfather, Professor Jared Kirtland, while living at Kirtland’s country estate.  A well-connected and respected naturalist, Kirtland socialized with many of the nation’s notable people.  This period of Cutter’s life appears to have given him a high degree of sophistication and confidence.  Cutter studied painting and sculpture at the Art Students League in New York.

He then spent several years traveling and studying in Europe.  Upon his return to the United States, his uncle, Horace Cutter, a banker in Spokane Falls, convinced the younger Cutter to join him there.  It does not appear that Cutter’s training included any formal education in the field of architecture, but he had an ability to visualize beautiful designs and transfer them to paper.  He was a talented illustrator and, through his travels, had been exposed to a wide variety of architectural designs, which he amalgamated into his own unique style.  His enthusiasm, charming sophistication, and connections to wealthy and influential individuals (associations made primarily through his Uncle Horace) would become contributing factors to his eventual international fame. 

Next week we will learn of the big Spokane Fire of 1889.  Click back and we’ll learn even some more about this great town of ours as well as our beloved Manito Park itself.

Ads For Manito Housing Lots Continue..

We have been exploring stories about the founding of Spokane as a city as well as the building and populating of the Manito Park neighborhood.  Last week we looked at Fred Grinnell, a real estate broker in Spokane and the ads he had been placing in the newspaper telling of the wonderful opportunities to build houses surrounding Manito Park.  This week, we will see more of those ads and learn a little more about the neighborhood. 

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.  

More articles or advertisements appeared in the Spokesman-Review of July 14, 1907:

MANITO

THE REASON WHY

Read this extract from an article in the Spokesman-Review of July 14, 1907:

“It is the natural tendency of residence districts to seek the highest points overlooking the city.  There is also a rugged picturesqueness embodied in the boulders and pine trees in much of the South Hill property that appeals to the homebuilder.  Then there is an unevenness in the lay of the ground which gives variety and puts most of the lots above street grades, which is an attractive feature.  These are some of the “characteristics” of South Side additions on the hill which probably cause the property to command higher prices than in most North Side Additions.”

 

MANITO HAS NO COMPETITORS

Manito stands in a class by itself as a high class residence district!

There are many reasons

FIRST – Manito is naturally the choice residence section, being built on the South Side, above the city and the railroads and commanding a magnificent view.  These are qualities which make the finest residence districts in all cities.

SECOND – The building restrictions have been enforced and none but nice residences have been erected.

THIRD – The owners of Manito Addition have spared no expense in the matter of improvements and today Manito is ahead of many districts not as far out, having good streets, cement sidewalks and city water.

FOURTH – Purchasers of Manito lots have been treated right.  No unfair advantages have been taken and they have been given more for their money than buyers in any other part of the city.

Manito has grown faster than any section of the city and more money has been spent there than in any other one section.  All of the houses at Manito are new.  Wouldn’t you rather build in such a section than where the development has reached its height?

 

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

Spokane Is No Exception To The Rule

The history of all cities in this and other countries is that the finest residence districts ultimately seek the higher levels.  In Spokane the highest level is MANITO.

It is the natural outcome of the development of any city of any size for the best residence district to be up on the hill sections.  The railroads, the business houses and manufactories must of necessity be located on the lower levels and as time goes on and a city develops the “one-time” best residences give place to business houses.  Every resident of Spokane has implicit faith in the development of the city and believes that within a few years it will be one of the important cities of the country.  When that belief has been fulfilled where will the choice residence section be?  Being elevated 350 feet above Howard and Riverside Manito benefits by the prevailing, warm southwesterly winds and is entirely free from the winter fogs and dampness experienced at intervals in the lower districts of the city. 

 

Next week , we will learn about two prominent architects  who settled in and designed many prestigious homes and buildings in growing Spokane.  Be sure to click over to www.ManitoPark.org or www.ManitoParkOrg.blogspot.com for the next chapter.

Home Sites Begin To Sell Around Manito Park...

The economy was healthy in 1907, but most importantly, Manito Park was ready to receive its neighborhood. To describe the building atmosphere around Manito Park, the following is a sampling of Grinnell's 1907 advertising campaign taken from various issues of the Spokesman Review:

 

 

MANITO

No section of the city, aside from the business section, is contributing so much toward the development of a Greater Spokane as the Manito residence section. This statement is not based on our opinions nor on the opinion of any person, but it is based on facts and figures which cannot be disputed. Figures sometimes lie, or at least can be made to deceive, but facts prove the statement.

 

Some Facts about Manito

10 miles of cement sidewalks.

62 houses now under construction.

1600 shade trees planted along the streets.

$35,000 spent in the public park

12 miles of graded street.

207 houses completed in 3 years.

7 miles of water mains laid.

Several miles of gas mains laid.

 

 

 

The Way Is Made Easy For You

You will never have a better opportunity to secure a home site than today. We

Let you name your own terms, and Manito property is selling at the present                                             

time below its actual value. Only a small cash payment required and you can tell us how you want to pay the balance.

 

No Other District but Manito Is Free from the Railroad Danger 

We Now Have an Automobile in Which to Show You Around

The Manito residence section is known as one of the most desirable residence sections in the city.

 

THE “MANITO KIND”

Of Home Site Is Not Found Elsewhere

 

In no other part of the city are there such beautiful surroundings as at Manito. The principal  park of the city, consisting of 95 acres; the Country Club, which  has beautiful grounds and buildings; Manito boulevard,  which is to be the show street of the city; the campus and buildings of the new Spokane College [on 29th Avenue near Grand Boulevard] and the new Rosedale boulevard , which is soon to be constructed, all surround Manito.

 

In addition to the beautiful surroundings, the building restrictions assure the Manito residence section will always be beautiful. Then, too, no railroads can ever reach Manito. It is way above them. Manito is favored with everything that could be desired for a residence section.

 

 

At Manito Park Tonight

You will find a free moving picture exhibition. Every night, Sunday excepted, there is a free moving picture exhibition in the park. There is also a free lecture, illustrated by the stereopticon, which is not only entertaining but highly instructive.

 

 

Manito is the Coolest Spot in Town

Come out this evening and enjoy the free moving picture exhibition between 8 and 9 o'clock.  It is delightfully cool and you will have an enjoyable time.

 

Every day now is a picnic day at Manito. Take a trip to Manito any evening about 6 o'clock and in the park you will find from 50 to 100 or more families eating their suppers in the coo l, open air; the coolest spot in Spokane; from 10 to 15 degrees cooler than it is in the downtown districts. If your home is in the Manito district you do not need to go to the mountains for the summer.  You have the mountain air at your home.

 

For Soil for Their Flowers The Ladies Go To Manito

Some of the richest and blackest soil in the city is to be found at Manito. It is the kind of soil that makes it easy for you to have a beautiful yard; combined with the soil are the artistic boulders and fine pines, all of which are making the South Side Hill section the most beautiful residence section.

 

Inferior or Superior Quality

Which Do You Want in Your Home Site Providing It Is Just as Easy to Secure One as the Other?

We believe that you want a home site which has superior qualities; one that is located in a part of the city which will never have any but fine residences; a home site that will grow in value as the city develops; a home site that contains the artistic features that will make it desirable; a home site located in that section of the city which contain s more public improvements than any other part-- in short--   the kind of home site you find at MANITO.

 

Not a commonplace section , but a section where the homes of all are up to the high standard for which  better residence sections  of  Spokane  have  become  noted .  A section where improvements precede the erection of the homes.

 

Next week, we will explore more of the newspaper advertising Mr. Grinnell used to attract future home owners to his new Manito Park Neighborhood.

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.

The battle over Spokane cemeteries continues….

For several months now, we have been exploring the facts and history surrounding the founding of Spokane’s Manito Park.  All the information has been gleaned from the book, “Manito Park:  A Reflection of Spokane’s Past”, by Tony Bamonte and Suzanne Schaeffer Bamonte of www.tornadocreekpublications.com.  This week, we continue the story of the cemeteries in Spokane, their importance to the real estate business here, and those involved in trying to move them to a more convenient place.

Mountain View, another of the first cemeteries, appeared on early maps between Cedar and Ash from about 10^th to 12thg Avenue (part of the Cannon Hill neighborhood).  It began receiving bodies as early as 1881, but was not officially declared a cemetery until the fall of 1883.  Anthony Cannon was one of the early residents who had planned on Mountain View as his final resting place.  The November 17, 1883 issue if The Spokane Falls Review contains a lengthy description of Mountain View Cemetery.  An excerpt follows:

About one mile southwest of the center of Spokane Falls is situated “Mountain View Cemetery”, the city of our dead.  The location has been well chosen, and the name, recently adopted, in every respect appropriate.  The necropolis occupies a clear space of some 40 acres, on a ridge overlooking Hangman Creek, and is surrounded with a forest of noble pines.  The piece of ground was dedicated to the purpose for which it is used last spring, and already is dotted, here and there with those slim, rounded mounds that indicate the last resting place of those near and dear to the members of our community…  We see that a number of persons have made the right move in this direction, several neat head-stones having been put in place during the past week.  In this Mr. A.M. Cannon has taken the lead.  On his lot near the center o0f the grounds, he has a handsome monument erected.  It is a square shaft of Italian marble resting on a solid granite base.  The four sides of the shaft are smooth, leaving spaces for future inscriptions; near the top on the four sides are two branches of laurel leaves, resting on which is a crown, the shaft surmounted with a finely carved urn.  On the east side, at base of shaft, is the single name “Clarke,” while on the west side, in the same position, is the name “Cannon”.  Above the east side, is the inscription, “George Pl Clarke [Cannon’s stepson], born June 23, 1867, died April 5, 1883.”  [The monument was subsequently moved to Greenwood Cemetery.]…  It is a quiet place to sleep that sleep of eternity.  Here the rich and poor, high and low, find a common level in one sepulcher, watched by the spirits of an invisible empire, while the winds of winter and the zephyrs of summer sing through the branches of solemn requiem.

Mountain View Cemetery was officially discontinued in June of 1888, when the city council and the county commissioners selected Fairmont Cemetery, incorporated that year, as Spokane’s official burial grounds.  On May 12, 1888, Anthony Cannon, along with four partners, developed and incorporated Greenwood Cemetery.  The bodies from Mountain View were exhumed and removed to Greenwood and Fairmont.  Early politics clearly played a role in this event.  Cannon had just completed a two-year term as the mayor of Spokane Falls, and previously served as a city councilman, and was well ingrained with the “city powers.”  Within five months of leaving office on May 23, 1888, the city council passed an ordinance stating:  “No body or remains of any deceased person shall be interred or buried in any cemetery, burial ground or other place within the city limits.”  Mountain View was within the city limits; Greenwood and Fairmont were not.  Cannon held 360 of the 500 Greenwood shares.

Be sure to join us next week when we will learn about how the neighborhood starts to develop around Manito Park.

Spokane was growing quickly and a political battle ensued over moving its first cemetery

Spokane was growing quickly and a political battle ensued over moving its first cemetery.

About the time of Cannon’s arrival, the railroads began connecting Spokane to the outside world.  Spokane’s population jumped from about 300 in 1880 to over 19,000 in 1890.  By 1891 the city limits stretched south to 29^th avenue.  (As may be recalled, when Cook bought over 600 acres on the Manito Plateau, most of it was outside the city limits, which then extended only to 14^th.)  The 1915 federal census (as published in the Polk Directory) placed the population figure at 139,323.  With such rapid expansion, the community faced the problem of where to bury its dead.  This was of some consequence to the early land developers.  Typically, cemeteries are established during the early stages of settlement.  They are usually situated in some of the most prime locations in a community. Often becoming coveted building sites as view and other choice property becomes scarce.   Such was the fate affecting two of Spokane’s first cemeteries, which were in the path of residential expansion.  There are many conflicting stories regarding these burial grounds, some of which may be clarified by the following quote from the May 26, 1897 Spokesman Review.   It provides excellent descriptions for both these cemeteries:

THE OLD CEMETERY

MOVEMENT TO REMOVE ONE OF SPOKANE’S LANDMARKS

PIONEERS ARE BURIED IN IT

Oldest Settlers Do Not Remember When It Was Started

Bodies to Be Exhumed

 

A movement is on foot to remove one of the most important historical landmarks in Spokane.  Last week a petition prepared by J. W. Witherop and signed by W.J.C. Wakefield, John Finch, J.J. Browne, Dr. W.W. Potter and other residents of Browne’s Addition, was presented to the city council, asking that 17 bodies buried in the old cemetery near the end of the boulevard and Pacific Avenue [Browne’s Addition] be exhumed and reinterred in one of the modern cemeteries – either Greenwood or Fairmont.  The petition stated the matter briefly, pointing out that the west end is rapidly becoming the most beautiful residence portion of the city, that remains of most of those buried in the cemetery had been removed some time ago, and it would add to the attractiveness of the neighborhood if the remainder were removed.

This was Spokane’s first cemetery.  Here it was that many of the sturdy pioneers who came over the trail from Oregon, or from the far east, years before the Northern Pacific railroad was dreamed of, were buried, as were their wives, and in many instances their children.  How the location was selected as a cemetery no one remembers.  It was certainly a sublime spot, however, situated on the abutting point of land, wrapt [sic] in the dense solitude of the primeval forest, commanding one grand, sublime view of rugged cliff and… the valleys of Hangman creek and the Spokane.

The exact date of the cemetery’s first burial is unknown, as were also the burials of later times.  No tombstone was ever erected in the plot; only some plain wooden slabs, lettered by the hands of some loving father, husband or brother, told for a few brief months the name of the departed.

In speaking of the old grave yard yesterday, James N. Glover, Spokane’s oldest pioneer, said:  “Yes, I understand the old cemetery is to be removed.  This was Spokane’s first cemetery.  I do not know how old it is; It was there when I first came, and used for many years afterward.  About 12 years ago most of the remains were removed.  I thought all, but it seems not.  No, I do not know the names of those buried out there, for I do not know how many were removed.” J.J. Browne, on whose land the cemetery was located, was more familiar with the later history of the cemetery than Mr. Glover.

“This,” said Mr.  Browne, “was Spokane’s first burying ground.  How it came to be selected I do not know; it was already located when I arrived.  That was before it came to be surveyed and was sold as government land.  When I got the land from the government, the cemetery was included in my purchase, and people continued to use it for many years afterward.  That was probably 18 years ago.  The cemetery was used until about 12 years ago, when most of the bodies were exhumed by friends and taken to Spokane’s second cemetery, the old burying ground in what is now known as Cannon’s Addition, probably a half mile south of the Irving school.  This latter cemetery was not used but a few years, the town growing so rapidly that the cemetery was abandoned and the bodies again exhumed, most of them taken to Greenwood or Fairmont.  I believe the number of bodies named in the petition as being still buried in the old cemetery is erroneous.  The petition say 17, but I believe there are no more than six or seven.  Do I know the names of those buried?  No; or at least not many of them.  I remember attending a number of funerals, however, the first funeral I attended in the city was that of Mr. Lowry, a young man, 21 years of age, who worked in one of the mills, if I remember rightly.  The parents of the young man later moved to Montana, and the remains were not exhumed.  Another funeral I attended was that of Mrs. Evans.  Shortly after her death her husband also removed to Montana, and was lost track of.  She remains buried in the cemetery.  Another, and the only remaining case that I know of is that of a Mr. Evans, who lost his life in a log jam up the river.  He was buried there, and only last week his wife came to see me to learn if the remains could not be removed to Greenwood or Fairmont.  I thought the proposal impossible, but she felt sure that she could identify the remains if they were exhumed.  She said that Mr. Evans lost his life up the river and that his skull was fractured in such a way that she would never forget it, or fail to identify the remains.  The fracture was on the side of the head, and she still remembered how it looked.  I also remember the burial of a number of men killed in a wreck on the Northern Pacific trestle, just north of the city, when that road was being built through the city.  If I remember rightly, though, these men were buried by the various trainmen’s societies.  A number of the Havermale children were also buried there.  The first that I knew of the movement being on foot to remove the remains was when the petition was presented to me last week.”

 

Next week , we’ll learn more about the various cemeteries in Spokane, how they were formed and where they were located.