Then and Now photos: Broadview Dairy

Allen H. Flood, born in 1854 and the grandson of Revolutionary War soldiers, moved to Washington from Maine in 1889 for work. He drove oxen in lumber camps, laid out roads as a surveyor and worked on farms. He started his own dairy herds in 1893 and eventually opened the Broadview Dairy, with several hundred cows on farms in Marshall and Rosalia. With his sons Frank and Edmund, Flood incorporated and prospered, building the large brick building on Washington Street for $35,000 in 1910. Milk was delivered to homes by horse-drawn wagons until the late 1920s, when they switched to trucks. Flood and son Frank advocated for better health safety in dairy production, including disease testing of cattle and pasteurization of milk. Broadview became part of Carnation Co. via a stock swap in 1929. Flood died in 1942. Foremost Dairies Northwest became the owner in 1989, but lost the business in bankruptcy. Goodale & Barbieri bought Broadview in 1991 and continued dairy production. In 1997, the plant closed and production moved to Darigold in north Spokane. The federal government now leases 20,000 square feet of renovated office space in the historic building. The 1948 addition on the west end will soon be torn down. It stands on property purchased by the city of Spokane. – Jesse Tinsley