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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Then and Now: Community Christmas tree

1960: Operation Christmas tree, a joint endeavor by the Junior Chamber of Commerce, aka the Jaycees, and the city of Spokane, is completed with a living blue spruce tree permanently planted in the median of Riverside Avenue. The Spokane Nurserymen’s association transplanted the tree from a donor’s property. Firefighters from Station 5 decked the tree with lights and decorations. The first tree died and was replaced in the early 1960s. (SPOKESMAN-REVIEW PHOTO ARCHIVES)
1960: Operation Christmas tree, a joint endeavor by the Junior Chamber of Commerce, aka the Jaycees, and the city of Spokane, is completed with a living blue spruce tree permanently planted in the median of Riverside Avenue. The Spokane Nurserymen’s association transplanted the tree from a donor’s property. Firefighters from Station 5 decked the tree with lights and decorations. The first tree died and was replaced in the early 1960s. (SPOKESMAN-REVIEW PHOTO ARCHIVES)
By Jesse Tinsley jesset@spokesman.com(509) 459-5378

Spokane was celebrating Christmas before the city was chartered or Washington became a state. In 1874, the entire population of Spokane, made up of five families with eight children, celebrated with a tree and a simple supper.

As the city grew into the business powerhouse of the region, Christmas took on a commercial flair, with the decorations designed to bring shoppers downtown.

In the early 20th century, the city’s Chamber of Commerce led in decorating public areas and tidying up downtown streets. Christmas trees were often featured in department stores, parking lots or public courtyards, but the first community tree may have been erected in 1937, when the Junior Chamber of Commerce requested permission to put a tree in the Riverside Avenue boulevard in front of the Chamber’s building, just west of the Spokane Club.

The Junior Chamber, better known as the Jaycees, was founded in 1920 as a business-oriented service organization for people between 18 and 40 years old.

In 1937, downtown store clerk Chan Chadwick commented to a Spokane Chronicle reporter that “a giant Christmas tree downtown gives an atmosphere of Christmas better than anything else.”

The Jaycees continued the tradition of finding and erecting a cut tree, stabilized by guy wires, as the community Christmas tree in that general location for more than 20 years.

Although a few years were missed starting in 1942 and through World War II, the practice began again in the late 1940s.

Often the job of cutting down and hauling the chosen tree was done by volunteers with expertise in the practice. Telephone or electrical utility linemen, sometimes firefighters, were often tasked with adding lights and decorations.

A major change in the practice took place in 1960 when the Jaycees planted a living tree in the median of Riverside Boulevard. The Spokane Nurserymen association transplanted the 7-ton blue spruce, with root ball attached. The first tree died but was replaced in 1962.

Many outdoor trees in area parks, shopping centers and parking lots have been illuminated to serve as Christmas trees. For more than 20 years, a large tree in Riverfront Park has been lit for the holidays, usually marked with lighting ceremonies around Thanksgiving.