Margaret Cowles

Pharmacists Joseph Hart and Owen Dilatush were confident they could build Spokane’s next great drug store. Hart had managed a large store in Seattle and worked in William Murgittroyd’s Prescription Annex in the Old National Bank building before the two opened Hart & Dilatush Pharmacy at 9 N. Stevens St. in 1918, near the popular doctors and dentists downtown. When Murgittroyd sold out in 1925, the young newcomers took over the clients of the Prescription Annex. They used direct mail to doctors and dentists to solicit new patients, and pledged to always be cheerful and call customers by name.

From theme parks and backyard campouts to murder mystery dinners, people of all ages can enjoy a well-planned birthday party. Here are some theme birthday ideas as well as location birthdays for all ages, suggested by readers.

A hot summer has translated to record-breaking revenue and admissions at Spokane pools. Capacity crowds day after day at Spokane County pools have caused a budget deficit and necessary staff increases, according to the county. Conversely, a new tracking system shows that both admissions and revenue are up at the pools.

Robert Strahorn was a businessman, writer and promoter who was 25 when he was hired by Jay Gould of the Union Pacific Railroad as a publicist. For several years, Strahorn, along with wife Dell, roamed the Idaho territory by stagecoach and wrote about the beauty and promise of the Western frontier. He helped plan rail routes and invested in townsites by the new tracks. In 1888, Strahorn joined the developers of Fairhaven, a town south of Bellingham that they hoped would be the western terminus of James J. Hill’s Great Northern Railroad. The deal fell apart when Hill chose Seattle instead. He created a thriving trading business in Boston in the 1890s but decided to move back to Spokane in 1898 to start his own railroad.

It began when five inventors met through Craigslist and reddit. They needed space to create, to build and to inspire others to explore the possibilities of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The Salvation Army was founded in 1865 and came to Spokane in 1891. It moved around, renting different buildings, until purchasing 245 W. Main Ave. in 1919 for $40,000. The Salvation Army building and the Red Shield Hotel were erected in 1921. The “hotel” provided housing for single men at a nominal fee for almost 60 years. It had 53 rooms available for working and indigent men. The motto promised “soup, soap and salvation” to all.