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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Then and Now: Medical Center Building

1972: The Medical Center Building at 9th Avenue and McClellan Street is across the street from the Sacred Heart Hospital surface parking lot, which disappeared in the expansion of the Sacred Heart Doctor’s Building in the 1990s. The building, also called the Southside Medical Center Building, has been an important location for medical and dental offices near Sacred Heart. It recently was renamed the Providence McClellan Health Center. (Cowles Publishing)
1972: The Medical Center Building at 9th Avenue and McClellan Street is across the street from the Sacred Heart Hospital surface parking lot, which disappeared in the expansion of the Sacred Heart Doctor’s Building in the 1990s. The building, also called the Southside Medical Center Building, has been an important location for medical and dental offices near Sacred Heart. It recently was renamed the Providence McClellan Health Center. (Cowles Publishing)
By Jesse Tinsley jesset@spokesman.com(509) 459-5378

Construction on the Medical Center Building at 9th Avenue and McClellan Street near Sacred Heart Hospital began in 1946 but wasn’t fully completed until 1948. Plans by architect George M. Rasque were for 52,000 square feet of floor space to house 60-70 physicians and about 12 dentists. The $500,000 structure, often called the Southside Medical Center Building to distinguish it from similar names, was equipped with air conditioning.

The owners of the new building were partners James Crick, Robert H. Crick and James K. Crick, Lester N. Johnson, William W. Singer and Roy L. Bair. All of the partners were in the construction business.

Bair was the lead contractor on the building, and Johnson and Singer were part of Bair’s company. Bair and his partners also built the Garland Theater, many buildings at Fairchild and other air force bases, and many miles of road projects. Bair died in 1953.

The Spokane Daily Chronicle noted in 1948 that the corner of 9th Avenue and McClellan was historic because the city’s first generation of streetcars passed by on their route to the Manito Park neighborhood.

The first, fourth and fifth floors opened on Feb. 2, 1948, while other floors waited for completion. A new restaurant, called the Mural Room, opened a couple of months later under the management of Clara B. Gillespie. The cafe’s name referred to colorful images of northwest animals and flowers, painted by Virginia Darce, that decorated the room. Darce also painted murals in the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church and the Ball & Dodd funeral home. When it opened, the restaurant advertised its hours as 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

There have been many major changes to the surrounding Providence Sacred Heart hospital campus, including the nine-story patient tower built in 1971 and expanded in 1984. That added space for many specialties, including psychiatry, radiology and pediatric surgery. The Heart Institute was added in 1991.

Closer to the Medical Center Building, a major expansion to the Doctor’s Building started in 1993, adding space for practices and specialty services. A multistory parking garage was completed with a skybridge to the Medical Center Building in 1996. The Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital opened in 2003.

The Medical Center Building, which now belongs to Providence Health, was recently renamed the Providence McClellan Health Center, while the Doctor’s Building is now the Providence Outpatient Health Center.