50 years ago in Expo history: Visions grew for a new downtown Riverfront Park, but fears mounted that ‘unsavory persons’ would ruin it

The Spokane Chronicle editorial page urged the city to remember one thing in converting the Expo site into a riverfront park: Security would be paramount.

“Careful planning for the security of persons using the park legitimately should let muggers and rowdies know from the start that their presence will not be tolerated,” an editorial said.

The editors were worried that the park would become a “mecca for unsavory persons” because of its proximity to downtown and Skid Road.

They praised the security at Expo, and hoped that uniformed police would continue to be a visible presence in the new park.

From 100 years ago: Joe Howard, 17, was badly injured when he used a springboard to vault over a pommel horse in the North Central High School gym.

He miscalculated and landed on his head, damaging his spinal cord. At Sacred Heart Hospital, he laughed and said he would be attending the next day’s North Central football game. Doctors, however, called his condition “extremely serious.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1805: Lewis and Clark Expedition first sights the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River.

1916: Jeannette Rankin, R-Montana, becomes first woman elected to Congress.

1917: The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is proclaimed.

1921: The Museum of Modern Art opens in the Hecksher Building in New York.

1940: The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses.