Boulder, plaque mark beginning of Father’s Day

The boulder in downtown Riverfront Park commemorates the birth of a holiday that was initiated not far from that spot and celebrated nationwide – Father’s Day.

It sits between the blue Howard Street Bridge and the YMCA building, and it bears two plaques commemorating the founding in Spokane of Father’s Day, the story of which is pretty well-known in the community.

Back in 1898, when Sonora Smart Dodd was 16, her mother died in Spokane while giving birth to her sixth child. Sonora was the only daughter, so she and her father took over the rearing of the new baby and her other siblings.

She greatly admired her Civil War veteran father, William Jackson Smart, and how he stepped up to care for his motherless children. And so, when she herself was a wife and mother, she heard a sermon about the newly established Mother’s Day holiday and approached the Spokane Ministerial Alliance to suggest that her father’s birthday, June 5, be selected to honor fathers. The ministers liked the idea, but selected the third Sunday in June instead.

That was in June 1910. Soon, Father’s Day was being observed across America, with President Lyndon Johnson signing a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day in 1966 and President Richard Nixon establishing it as a permanent national observance in 1972.

Back in 1910, the Spokane Ministerial Alliance was housed at the YMCA in a building at Lincoln and First in downtown Spokane, according to Mary Berry, a YMCA spokesperson. In time, the Y put up a plaque at the building, which read: “Within this building, June 6, 1910, ‘Father’s Day’ was founded by Mrs. John Bruce Dodd as a tribute to her father, William Jackson Smart, a pioneer. To all devoted fathers this plaque is an honor gift from Spokane County Pioneer Society. June A.D. 1948.”

When a new YMCA building was opened in 1965 along the south bank of the Spokane River in what would shortly become Riverfront Park, the plaque was moved there. Berry said a large boulder was taken from the Spokane River near the Greene Street Bridge and donated by the Spokane Park Board. It was placed in its current location, with the plaque placed on it. And a new plaque was added. It reads:

“This plaque on the left was originally placed on the Spokane YMCA building at First and Lincoln. This commemoration of Father’s Day was moved to the site of the new YMCA building on Father’s Day, June 20, 1965.”

But change is ever present, and the current YMCA building has been sold to the Spokane Park Board. A joint YMCA-YWCA building, under construction at 930 N. Monroe St. a few blocks north of the Spokane River, is set to open in May. The Father’s Day boulder and plaque are scheduled to be moved and incorporated into the landscaping of the new facility.

As for the Father’s Day founder herself, Sonora Smart Dodd lived well into old age and got to see her idea for honoring her father grow into a hugely popular national celebration. She was honored at Spokane’s world exposition, Expo ’74, and died at age 96 in 1978; she is buried at Greenwood Memorial Terrace in Spokane.