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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Architect Herman Preusse played a vital role in creating the architectural landscape of Spokane, Washington, from 1882 through the early nineteen teens (Figure 1). His contributions during his career included noncommercial and commercial structures. These creations left an indelible mark upon the city.
When Preusse arrived in Spokane Falls, Washington Territory, in 1882, he was joining a community in the midst of developing into a major commercial and urban center. Since Spokane is landlocked it needed the railroad in order to connect it to the rest of the nation and to stimulate its economy. Essentially, the city’s founders had gambled on the railroads to link them to vital commercial centers in the east, west, and south and to catapult the town into a progressive metropolis. Their plan was about to come to fruition. In 1883 the Northern Pacific railroad connected Spokane Falls directly to Chicago and other cities in the east and to the west. In the years that followed, the city acquired the status to which its forbears aspired. Since this time, it has been known as the capital of the Inland Empire. The railroad had provided the city with rail links to all of North America making it a vital inland northwest transportation center for transcontinental rail traffic.
Becoming the capital of the Inland Northwest called for an architectural aesthetic representative of the city’s status. From the beginning, the founders of this city had the foresight to retain the advice of a trained architect whose architecture was instrumental in shaping the image of this frontier town into the commercial center of the Inland Northwest. The community’s visionaries were intent upon creating the image of a maturing urban center to impress upon the east - particularly hoping to present themselves as a city with comparable commercial interests and architectural aesthetics.[1] Prompted by this desire to be linked with the east, the residents sought functional architecture that would also serve to perpetuate the image of a progressive urban center. In aspiring to this image, the town needed a trained professional capable of creating architecture to emulate this image. Herman Preusse was this architect. He began designing commercial structures in the city of Spokane from the moment that he arrived in town and he provided the city with the expertise of a technically trained architect – the city’s first.[2]
Throughout his career his style progressed and evolved. From his first to his last known building commission, Preusse tended to lean heavily on revival styles, both classical and medieval, although his later work suggests an interest in Chicago School architecture. The only style Preusse completely abandoned during his years in Spokane was the Second Empire Baroque style that had been so popular during the mid-nineteenth century. Though he used this particular idiom for several homes and academic building designs during the first years of his career, soon after his arrival the interest and appreciation for this style was exhausted. Through the advancement of Preusse’s commercial architectural style the progression of Spokane’s urban transformation is revealed. In the beginning of his Spokane career, he tended to adapt medieval features into his commercial buildings, but in the middle and latter part of his career he began designing structures using classical elements. There are, however, exceptions to this, as will be demonstrated.
The examples included in this research were picked primarily because of their availability with respect to resource material and because they provide evidence for architect Herman Preusse’s diverse design capabilities as pertains to commercial and public buildings. In addition, the most of these buildings were prominent features of Spokane’s skyline before 1910.[3] The public buildings considered for this study have been limited to a library, a mixed-use auditorium/commercial building, a State Armory, and a theater. Other noncommercial structures, such as academic, religious and residential, are left out of this particular study.
As is the case in progressive cities, older buildings are continually being razed and replaced with more modern structures. Buildings of Preusse’s era typically have been demolished because the needs of a modern community require vertical space that older structures cannot possibly provide.[4] Numerous structures designed by Preusse were subjected to this fate. As they were deemed incongruent with the community’s needs, they were demolished to make way for modern commercial structures.
Another unfortunate occurrence was the fire that destroyed Spokane’s commercial core during the summer of 1889. A majority of the buildings Preusse designed prior to this time were destroyed. Records, newspapers, and architectural evidence were burned along with these buildings so that only scant evidence remains regarding these first Preusse designs. Among the surviving archival material is a promotional booklet produced by the city’s Board of Trade that was in the process of being printed when the fire occurred. Many of the plates contained within this booklet provide the clearest images of these lost buildings. There are also extant examples of Preusse’s architecture surviving in the city itself, although all of these were completed after the fire, so they date from approximately 1889 through the nineteen teens. Most of these examples are dispersed around the central downtown business district.
The focus of this study is limited to select commercial and a few public structures around the downtown commercial core of Spokane, Washington. They date from 1882-1911 with some references to the various structures Preusse designed throughout eastern
Washington and their connection with current architectural styles. Since no published or unpublished text dealing specifically with the work of Herman Preusse exists, it is the intent of this thesis to provide architectural descriptions of these commercial and public structures delineated in a chronological fashion. Further, this study will provide insight into the evolution of his designs, including a brief overview and discussion of his noncommercial structures. In describing and discussing Herman Preusse and his work, it is also necessary to consider the historical context of the environment within which he lived and worked, for the community’s economic prosperity and slumps regulated the rate at which he designed and often the extent to which his designs were implemented.
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CHAPTER II
THE SPOKANE ENVIRONMENT AND ITS EVOLUTION:
FROM FRONTIER TOWN TO PROPSEROUS URBAN CENTER
When Herman Preusse arrived in 1882, Spokane Falls was still vying for position, both politically and socially, and struggling to become a significant commercial center in the Northwest. Spokane Falls, and the Washington Territory as a whole, was beginning to draw the attention of settlers from the east. Promotional pamphlets from the railroad and the city’s Board of Trade stressed overcrowding in the east and also promoted local mining, agriculture, and timber industries and (to a lesser extent) manufacturing, thus providing an impetus to settlers to travel to the northwest. These circumstances instigated the flood of immigration into Spokane, and Washington, that would last into the early twentieth century.
Settlement in Eastern Washington began in earnest in the early 1870s.[5] The area
around Spokane Falls (and what was to become the state of Washington) was considered by the nation’s populace as, “an unsurveyed wilderness on the map of Washington
Territory,” without the comforts necessary to persuade multitudes of immigrants to settle in the area.[6] Spokane Falls itself was just a frontier outpost consisting of a few wooden shacks prior to the 1870s.
In March of 1873, J. J. Downing and S. R. Scranton opened a sawmill in the town.[7] At this time, Downing, Scranton and his family, and the family of R. M. Benjamin, were the only residents until May when James N. Glover (later given the title “Father of Spokane”) arrived to examine the area. Glover believed that the area was an appropriate town site and soon thereafter purchased Downing’s share of the squatter’s claim that included the sawmill and the property along the south side of the riverfront – this included the area that would eventually evolve into Spokane’s business district.[8]
Glover’s stratagem for this squatter’s claim consisted mainly of developing the land into a thriving and profitable northwest city. In order to achieve this, the town needed a commercial draw other than the sawmill and his small store. The sawmill was a viable industry but with a negligible population in the area it provided little revenue. A flourmill, however, would draw existing consumers from the surrounding agricultural areas. These two industries, plus the small store, would provide the inland northwest with viable commercial businesses – the beginning of a western urban center.
To implement his plan for a flourmill Mr. Glover sought out the only millwright in the area. Across the Washington Territory border, in Rathdrum, Idaho, lived Frederic Post, a German millwright. Glover invited Mr. Post to move his family to Spokane Falls to start a flour and gristmill.[9] The deal closed when Glover leveraged the deal in his favor by giving Post forty acres of land next to the falls on which he could build. Glover’s strategy succeeded and the mill began production in 1877. Although Glover speculated that the flourmill and sawmill were the first steps in creating an economically prosperous western town, fruition of his vision for Spokane Falls’ future was not yet assured.
The realization of James N. Glover’s dream progressed slowly with minimal population growth until the railroad laid its tracks through town connecting it directly to cities like Chicago in the east and Tacoma to the West. In the spring of 1879, the Northern Pacific Railroad began to survey the land around Spokane in preparation for laying the track lines through town.[10] The first train to appear in Spokane Falls from the west arrived June 25, 1881.[11] The “Golden Spike” was driven in September 7, 1883, about fifty miles outside of Helena, Montana, signifying the completion of the line from the east to the west.[12]
This main trunk line of the Northern Pacific (completed to Puget Sound) provided the catalyst that Spokane Falls needed to become a vital commercial entity in the west. Once the Northern Pacific arrived, other railroads soon followed. The Union Pacific, Great Northern, Milwaukee, and the Canadian Pacific, all converged upon Spokane in the following years making Spokane the “major railroad center in the West.”[13]
Due in part to its status as one of the West’s major transportation centers, Spokane soon became known as the Capital of the inland northwest. The inland empire, as it has since become known, constitutes an area approximately two hundred miles in diameter, bordered by the Rocky Mountains, the Selkirks, the Cascades and the Blue Mountains.[14]
The city’s initial growth spurt occurred even before the first train rolled into town.[15] In 1880, prior to the railroad’s arrival in Spokane Falls, the population reached approximately 350 people. Spokane Falls even boasted two newspapers, the Spokan Times and the Spokane Falls Chronicle. Despite the absence of reliable and efficient transportation, Spokane Falls was incorporated as a city on November 29, 1881 and in 1886 became the County seat.[16] When the railroad did arrive in the late 1880s, propaganda touting the attributes of the area, which often contained misinformation, was distributed in the east to stimulate settlement. The “pamphlets and newspaper puffery [tempted immigrants] to move to ‘the best poor man’s country in the world,’ where work was ‘plentiful at $20 a month with board.’”[17] By 1890 Spokane’s population had increased to an astounding 36,000 residents.[18]
As early as the 1880s, Spokane Falls was concerned with both advancing urbanization and yet preventing the problems caused by it. The town constructed sewage and water lines, roads and electric lines. Because urbanization often brings pollution, preservation of Spokane Falls’ natural resources caused concern in the community. In response to this concern, ordinances were implemented to protect the city’s most vital natural resource, the Spokane River, with the specific purpose of preserving the purity of the water from sewage and other pollutants.[19] By preserving its resources, the city intended to ensure its prosperity through careful urban expansion.
The city’s urban expansion was due, in part, to its proximity to the Spokane River. By 1883, the town had installed “thirty-eight fire hydrants, twenty arch lights, fifty-two telephone boxes.”[20] Spokane, by 1885, had become the first city, west of the Mississippi, to boast a hydroelectric plant.[21] The power of the river was harnessed to create electricity for the community’s consumption. The advent of hydroelectricity
perpetuated development of numerous electric lines connecting various areas of the city.[22] The Spokane Street Railway began transporting citizens from downtown to residential districts starting in 1886-1887. The introduction of electric streetcars provided citizens from outlying residential communities with easy access to the city’s commercial core. After ten years, the city’s individual trolley lines were coalesced into one company owned and operated by the Washington Water Power Company.[23] Hydroelectric power was an amenity that no other western city could provide at this early stage and this likely perpetuated the city’s growth.
Instrumental in the economic success of the city was the discovery of lead, silver, and gold in the hills of Montana, Idaho, northeastern Washington and British Columbia during the 1880s. One of the first discoveries of gold was in northern Idaho. People from around the United States and its territories converged on Coeur d’Alene when the news spread that gold had been discovered in the surrounding hills. Because of its close proximity, Spokane Falls “became an outfitting point… and business boomed as it never boomed before.”[24] Money from the mines and incoming prospectors poured into the city’s economy. Though Spokane Falls was already home to wealthy merchants and bankers, the mining magnates would also choose this city in which to showcase their wealth.
Fortunately for the citizens of Spokane Falls academic institutions were established during the 1880s to provide educational opportunities to the community. One of the first in the area was Gonzaga College (now University) located northeast of the city center. The college, established by the Reverend Joseph Cataldo, a missionary of the Society of Jesus (or Jesuits) opened in 1887 for the purpose of educating the laity as well as missionaries.[25]
With prosperity in its grasp, the city was about to suffer a devastating disaster. On Sunday evening August 4, 1889, a fire began that would eventually spread over thirty-two blocks, destroying the city’s commercial district.[26] As the smoke was still wafting from the rubble the following morning, the citizens of Spokane Falls began planning for their new commercial center. This time, fireproofing techniques and noncombustible materials such as granite, brick, and terra cotta were to be used exclusively in the downtown area.
In a move to advertise their continued progression as a city – despite the recent setback of the fire – the city organized an exposition in 1890 to promote its prominent status in the west. The Northwest Industrial Exposition drew participants from as far away as San Francisco and Minneapolis. The exposition offered examples of goods from regions throughout the west but especially the inland northwest. By all accounts, Spokane Falls achieved its goal of drawing attention to its wares as well as promoting itself as one of the most progressive cities of the Northwest.
In 1891 Spokane dropped “Falls” from its name and the city’s prosperity continued unabated, with its population of approximately 30,000. Then, it was struck with a second devastating blow.[27] The panic of 1893 forced the entire nation into a financial depression. Like every city in the nation, Spokane too suffered because of the economic collapse. Seven of ten banks in the town closed and several prominent Spokane citizens were forced into ruin.[28] As Spokane and the rest of the country rallied in the years following the panic of 1893, a new generation of ambitious and puissant men emerged.[29] These men further perpetuated the progress of the city and its urbanization; this economic boom would continue into the early twentieth century.
During the years after the depression, urbanization was occurring at astounding rates. Spokane was becoming a thriving, bustling city of street trolleys and commercial activity. With its picturesque location on the River, Spokane became home to immigrants, farmers, miners, merchants and millionaires. Eventually, with yields in the millions from the Coeur d’Alene mines, Spokane received a further influx of citizens.[30]
The social elite of the city consisted of bankers, real estate investors, as well as Coeur d’Alene mining magnates who had chosen Spokane as their main place of residence, constructing imposing homes evincing their wealth.[31] The majority of the city’s elite preferred to build homes on the higher ground, located west of the commercial district in an area called Browne’s Addition.[32] These houses either overlooked the Spokane River or faced east towards the city of Coeur d’Alene. By 1910, the population grew to just over 104,400 citizens making it the second biggest city in the Inland West.[33] Now, the affluent citizenry began building homes in areas south of the commercial district in residential communities with names such as Rockwood and Rimrock.[34] With the arrival of new citizens came “an era of so-called Civic Pride Leagues.[35] These civic pride leagues were instrumental in encouraging and promoting the City Beautiful project for Spokane.