Then and Now: Downtown Sears building

As one of many new brick-and-mortar outlets, the first Spokane store opened in 1930 at 906 W. Main Ave. The bright, white modern building with a central tower in art deco style contrasted with the stodgy brick department stores that came before.

Section:Gallery

Sun., April 11, 2021

Circa 1990: The 1930 Sears, Roebuck & Co. building at Main Avenue and Lincoln Street was repurposed into the Spokane Public Library in the early 1960s. The structure served the department store for 30 years, then as the downtown library for 30 years before being torn down in 1992. It was an example of art deco architecture, though library historian Nancy Compau wasn’t sorry to see it go. “I’m not terribly enamored with it,” she said in 1990, “and I work in the building. We have other fine examples of art deco architecture – City Ramp Garage, new City Hall (the old Montgomery Ward building) and the Fox Theater.”

Library Of Congress
Present day: The 1994 Spokane Public Library downtown branch is closed and currently being gutted and remodeled to offer more technology, meeting space, computer labs and media production studios when it reopens in early 2022. The improvements are being paid for by a $77 million library bond passed in 2018.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo