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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Then and Now: Crescent Santa

1957: This night photo from The Spokesman-Review shows the Madonna and child faux stained-glass lighted decoration on the new Bon Marche department store in downtown Spokane. Across Main Avenue from the Bon was the Crescent department store, a hometown favorite famous for its holiday décor and windows, which featured a 13-foot fiberglass Santa Claus above the store’s marquee seen at right. The giant Santa was displayed until the store closed for good in 1992. Later it was bought by White Elephant co-owner Pat Conley and displayed seasonally at the popular sporting goods stores. (Spokesman-Review photo archives)
1957: This night photo from The Spokesman-Review shows the Madonna and child faux stained-glass lighted decoration on the new Bon Marche department store in downtown Spokane. Across Main Avenue from the Bon was the Crescent department store, a hometown favorite famous for its holiday décor and windows, which featured a 13-foot fiberglass Santa Claus above the store’s marquee seen at right. The giant Santa was displayed until the store closed for good in 1992. Later it was bought by White Elephant co-owner Pat Conley and displayed seasonally at the popular sporting goods stores. (Spokesman-Review photo archives)
By Jesse Tinsley jesset@spokesman.com(509) 459-5378

The accompanying night photo shows the lighted Madonna and child decoration on the angled corner of the Bon Marche department store in 1957. The new store, completed in 1956, tied together the former Culbertson warehouse to the north and the Welch Building to the east. The store’s design team commissioned the hand-painted 12-by-48-foot backlit Madonna from Baldwin Sign Company for the store’s lighted corner. Perched above the Crescent department store marquee on the right is the 13-foot fiberglass Santa Claus figure, part of the store’s legendary holiday decor, which included motorized, animated window dioramas. The holiday extravaganza made the Crescent, a Spokane institution founded in 1889, the destination for holiday shoppers for almost a century.

The Crescent stores and Seattle’s upscale Frederick and Nelson department store chain were bought by a Seattle investment group in 1986. Spokane’s hometown stores were renamed as Frederick and Nelson in 1988. After several years of losses, the chain finally closed in 1992. Despite the legendary history of festive Christmas decorating, the store’s display materials were sold off, stored or lost.

The giant fiberglass Santa ended up with a former Crescent employee who sold it around 1994 to Pat Conley, son of White Elephant sporting goods founder John Conley. The Santa was displayed in various ways at the Spokane Valley White Elephant store. The stores closed in 2020.

The giant Santa was borrowed and placed in the Davenport Grand lobby in 2018, the first year the Downtown Spokane Partnership helped revitalize the Crescent’s animated window displays there. The hotel now stores the oversized St. Nick and brings it out each year around Thanksgiving.

In recent years, the Downtown Spokane Partnership staff has helped preserve the Crescent holiday dressings for display, most recently in the south-facing windows of the Davenport Grand Hotel.

This year’s displays, now called The Crescent Windows at the Grand, feature ballet dancer figurines, both spinning and static, representing scenes and characters from the Nutcracker. Global Credit Union has sponsored the windows.

The 24 dancers, made of papier-mâché and porcelain, were donated by the real estate firm Goodale and Barbieri, which had recovered them from forgotten storage areas. The windows are illuminated for viewing 3-8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and noon to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through the holiday season.