Why America Can't Save Its Own Homeland

Spokane, Washington was once one of the wealthiest cities in the American West. Silver and lead fortunes from Idaho's Coeur d'Alene mining district built a downtown of stone banks, ornate theaters, and one of the finest grand hotels west of Chicago — the Davenport Hotel, designed by architect Kirtland Cutter and opened in 1914. Mining kings raised mansions on the South Hill. Streetcar suburbs stretched into tree-lined neighborhoods. The commercial district along Riverside Avenue rivaled cities many times Spokane's size. Then the mines slowed. The highways came. Urban renewal tore down the very buildings that gave downtown its character. Shopping malls pulled customers to the suburban fringe. Expo '74 reclaimed the riverfront but erased the railroad infrastructure that had made the city. And in 1985, the Davenport Hotel — where presidents had slept — locked its doors and sat empty for seventeen years. This is the story of what built Spokane, what hollowed it out, and why America keeps losing the places it built to last. SOURCES: Spokesman-Review Historical Archives, Spokane, WA Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, Spokane, WA John Fahey, historian of the Inland Northwest and the Coeur d'Alene mining district National Register of Historic Places — Spokane County nomination records Spokane Public Library, Northwest Room local history collection Expo '74 World's Fair Corporation records and Riverfront Park planning documents