Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Two huge new downtown building projects were changing Spokane’s skyline. The first was the nine-story department store, Culbertson-Grote-Rankin, at the corner of Main Avenue and Howard Street. Work had already reached the sixth floor, and another floor was being added every week.

It was the “largest reinforced concrete structure ever erected in Spokane.”

The other project was the Davenport Hotel. The stonework was completed and brickwork was set to begin. “Cement has been poured to the twelfth floor and the framework is stripped as far as the tenth,” the paper reported. 

From the train beat: The train crew thought they were helping save a life when they rushed from the caboose to assist a man who had been knocked off the track by the train near Trent Avenue. 

They were helping him back to the caboose when he broke away from the men, ran toward the slowly moving train, deliberately thrust his head beneath the wheels, and was beheaded.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1924: Two U.S. Army planes landed in Seattle, having completed the first around-the-world flight in 175 days.