Then and Now: Chamber of Commerce building

In the 1890s, the city’s Bureau of Immigration encouraged people to populate Spokane. The bureau answered mail from workers, farmers, businesses and professionals who wanted to know more about the burgeoning city.

After several years of voluminous mail, chairman Henry Richards of Washington Water Power organized a new Spokane Chamber of Commerce in 1897 using a free office at City Hall. For the next 30 years, the business boosters occupied whatever space they could find, including the Hutton Building and the Legion Building.

Under president Eric Johnston, the chamber built a new office, sometimes called the Civic Building, between the Spokane Club and the Masonic Hall at 1020 W. Riverside Ave. in 1931. Johnston is best known as the head of the Motion Picture Association of America from 1946-1963.

Over the years, the chamber lobbied government on behalf of businesses and operated many bureaus and committees for various business sectors, such as agriculture, mining, aviation and manufacturing. Throughout the 1930s, the chamber lobbied for the Grand Coulee Dam, touting hydropower, employment, irrigation and tourism possibilities.

In the depths of the Great Depression, thousands of men were employed on the project that was completed in 1941. During the Vietnam War, a chamber committee sent newsletters and packages to local servicemen and lobbied the North Vietnamese for humane treatment of POWs from Spokane. In 1977, the name changed to Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce.

In 1997, the group moved to 801 W. Riverside, the former WestOne bank building, with the Economic Development Council and the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Several years ago, the EDC and the chamber later combined to become Greater Spokane Incorporated.