Transformation of historic Stowell Drug into mixed-use building underway

A major renovation of the historic Stowell Drug and Assay building on West Sprague Avenue in downtown Spokane has completely gutted the two-story building.

When complete, the building at 415 and 417 W. Sprague Ave. will have four apartments upstairs and retail tenants on the ground floor.

“It was in pretty rough shape,” said Titus Hug, the general contractor on the project, who said it took a “ton of demo” to get it ready for construction.

Work began this summer, and Hug anticipates the building will be complete sometime next year. The location is probably best known for housing Irv’s, a popular gay bar. More recently it housed Stray.

The building, which was built in 1892, is occasionally referred to as the Webster building, and it housed a number of hotels in its early days, including the Plains Hotel, the Dixon Hotel and the Webster Hotel and Apartments. An early retail tenant was jeweler Sartori and Wolff. A tavern occupied at least part of the building from the 1930s to well into the this century.

However, the strucutre is primarily known as the location of a drugstore opened by W.H. Stowell and C. M. Fassett. Fassett had a chemical and assaying shop on Monroe Street north of the river in 1890. Stowell came to Spokane in 1891 from Nevada.

In 1912, the drugstore moved to the Sprague location and remained there until 1961. Stowell ran the company until his death in 1931. His son, Harry Stowell, ran it until 1961, when an illness forced him to close the store. The 2015 obituary for Harry’s daughter, Helen Stowell, said the shop was the oldest drug store in Spokane and “specialized in old-time remedies and herbs. They did assaying for miners from all over the Northwest and Alaska.”

According to Robery Hyslop’s book, Building Blocks, Stowell and Fassett were the only assayers in town, “as long as that peculiarly western profession remained a viable business. Stowell combined his analytical chemistry with the business of medicines and prescriptions, while the Fassett company connected it with chemical supplies and materials testing.”

As Hyslop’s description suggests, assaying is a scientific way to test a material, primarily metal or ore, for its ingredients and quality. Locally, the procedure had implications for both pharmacies and the mining industry.

The building was purchased by B&H Enterprises in 2008 for $1.5 million. John Heath, president of Washington Trust Bank, and George Bourekis own B&H.

The architect is Jim Haines, of Spokane’s Haines Architectural Services.