100 years ago in Spokane: Architect Julius Zittel came to Spokane and designed St. Aloysius and other landmarks

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Spokesman-Review ran a profile of Julius A. Zittel, one of the city’s leading architects.

“Mr. Zittel has designed some of the finest buildings in the city, and the county as well, including Gonzaga college, the Victor Block, the new city hall, St. Aloysius Church, the Carnegie Library building and the normal school at Cheney,” said the story. Zittel was also prominent in Democratic Party politics.

He was a native of Germany and came to the U.S. in 1882 to study architecture in Chicago. Zittel moved to Spokane at the behest of Dutch Jake Goetz, who met him in Chicago and recognized his talent.

From the hygiene beat: The S-R’s anonymous society columnist ruminated wryly on the subject of small boys and their affinity for dirt.

“All males at an early stage of development abhor soap and water as effeminate and degrading articles to be used only after great stress on the part of the parents,” wrote the columnist. “There are many schools of face washing in vogue among young boys. There is the method of dampening the forelock and coming to breakfast with a trickle of water down the nose as evidence of ablutions performed. … Ears are only to be washed under the chaperonage of some adult, and as for necks, they are to be completely ignored by the wash rag in its orbit.”

The columnist did note, however, that the moment a new era dawns in a boy’s development – the moment he takes an interest in girls — the “despised wash bowl becomes her boy’s choicest spot and he lingers long over his ablutions.”