Topics
Local History
Summary
How things have changed
Every Monday in The Spokesman-Review we bring you a new installment of Then & Now, a photo feature showing historic and modern images of places around Spokane.
See more of Then & Now online.
More information
Jim Kershner’s ‘This day in history’
Latest updates in this topic
Spokane Valley Heritage Museum volunteer gets talk flowing
Don Gorman began volunteering for the Spokane Valley Heritage Museum before it existed and he never quit. The way Gorman tells the story, he met Chuck King at a picnic …
Five Mile group to debut book during Prairie Day
The Friends of the Five Mile School House has published a book about the history of Five Mile Prairie. It will be available at Prairie Day on Saturday.
100 years ago avalanche wreaked havoc in the Cascades
On Feb. 28, 1910, exactly 100 years ago, a group of desperate Great Northern train passengers – many from Spokane – signed the following petition addressed to the railroad superintendent: …
Forest Van Dorn
Next August marks the 100th anniversary of the 1910 Fire, which swept across 3 million acres in Idaho, Washington and Montana during a two-day firestorm. At least 85 people – …
Memories come full circle
When Mary Floy Dolphin, 81, was a girl, she and her friends would visit the Herschell-Spillman Carousel in Liberty Lake Park during the summers. “In the ’40s, we rode the …
Sunday’s crusade
One hundred years ago this Christmas Day, evangelist Billy Sunday arrived in Spokane to launch a thundering, pulpit-shaking battle for this wicked city’s immortal soul. Welcome to Spokane’s Culture Wars, …
The first police force
Spokane Police Officer Alfred Waterbury was just doing his duty. But that duty, as duty sometimes does, led to his death.
Spokane Garry
Most of us know exactly one thing about Chief Garry: His crumbling statue in Chief Garry Park was hauled away in May. Maybe you picked up a few other details …
Jewish beginnings
What better day than the first day of Passover to recount the history of Spokane’s Jewish community? And what better day to remind everyone of this surprising fact: In 1892, …
FAST TRACK TO FAME
Some people have a serious gap in their Inland Northwest cultural knowledge: They don’t know Patrice Munsel.
Memory lane
From 1907 through 1909, the Milwaukee Road blasted a route through the Bitterroots, into the Inland Northwest and onward to Puget Sound. Today, you can explore the most spectacular section …
Calamity Jane: Part cheers, mostly booze
Everybody knows Calamity Jane. Some know her as Jane Russell, some as Doris Day and some as Robin Weigert in a particularly foul-mouthed version in HBO’s hit, “Deadwood.” But did …
Disaster on Division
A sleepy bunch of Spokane workmen were riding the Astor streetcar to work at 6 a.m. on Dec. 18, 1915, when, suddenly, the Division Street Bridge collapsed violently beneath them. …
When dragons roamed Trent
Once there was a place in Spokane called Trent Alley, which might have been dropped intact from early San Francisco or Seattle – or even Tokyo or Hong Kong. In …
Pioneer bridges
The announcement that the Monroe Street Bridge will reopen in September prompted this question from a reader: When did the first bridges cross the Spokane River? The short answer: 1864 …
Paving the way: The automobile revolution profoundly changed the Inland Northwest
As social revolutions go, this one was a whopper. The automobile revolution began nearly 100 years ago, and it profoundly changed America and the Inland Northwest. In the space of …