Spokane landmark saved by asbestos
SPOKANE, Wash. — In my soft-spoken quest to sleep in America's historic hotels, I landed at the Davenport Hotel and Tower in downtown Spokane.
Opened in 1914, the Davenport was America's first hotel with air conditioning. It was also the first with housekeeping carts, designed by owner Louis Davenport.
(Sun-Times file)
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby stayed at the Davenport. Der Bingle launched his career as a drummer across the street at the newly restored Bing Crosby Theater. Authors Zane Grey and Dashiell Hammett wrote scenes while staying in "the house of comfort," as the hotel was called.
The rebirth of the Davenport is a metaphor for the rebirth of Spokane, the second largest city in Washington after Seattle.
One of the city's first spikes came in 1883 when the Northern Pacific Railroad was extended to Spokane.
In recent years, Spokane faded away because industries that built the city had died: railroads, agriculture, silver mining and timber. The city was on serious life support after it hosted the 1974 World's Fair. The Davenport closed in 1985. A demolition crew planned to blow up the property.
"What saved it was asbestos," said Spokane television personality and hotel historian Tom McArthur. "They couldn't blow it up because of the [noncombustible mineral] asbestos. It was too expensive to tear down. So they closed the doors and walked away."
The Davenport sat empty until 2000, when developers Walt and Karen Worthy bought it for $6.5 million. Their first date was at the Davenport in 1970. It took 2½ years and $38 million for the Worthys to restore the hotel.
"Spokane has been unexpectedly brave," said Jeanna Hofmeister, vice president and director of destination marketing, Spokane Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau. "After it burned to the ground in 1889 Spokane built a new, vibrant community. It was the smallest city to host a world's fair in 1974. Spokane even launched the nation's largest wireless hot zone. Rescuing one of the finest historic hotels in America fits in."
Today, the Davenport is the center of downtown activity, much like the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. The Davenport's softly lit lobby and fountain reminded me of the Peabody despite the Davenport's bold Spanish influence. Over the lobby's fireplace hangs a 1914 painting of Christopher Columbus' ships of discovery -- an invitation to explore the "new world" of the hotel.
The Davenport was my port of entry during a late summer trip to Washington and Idaho. I flew into Spokane, just a half-hour drive on Interstate 90 from the Idaho border. I was in town for the end of baseball season (check out the Spokane Indians of the Northwest League), but five ski areas are within a two-hour drive of the Davenport.
The Davenport has 283 rooms, or 122 fewer than when it debuted in 1914. A year ago, the 328-room Davenport Tower opened across the street from the original hotel. I didn't stay at the tower, but I headed over to its Safari Room restaurant and bar for a bottle of Kokanee beer. The Pilsner-style lager (with 5 percent alcohol and zero preservatives) is brewed in British Columbia, but it's the most popular beer in Spokane. Also check out Moxie, (509) 456-3594, www.moxiemoxie.com, a new Euro-Asian restaurant that opened across the street from the hotel.
'Forward thinking'
When Spokane hosted Expo '74, it was the first city to host an environmentally themed world's fair. "That was forward thinking in Spokane in 1974 when the whole economy was built around mining and timber," said Hofmeister, a Spokane native.
This city of 225,000 has since shifted its focus to higher education and software design, but it hasn't abandoned the past. In 2004, Spokane spent more money on historic preservation than the rest of the state combined, Hofmeister said.
The old Burlington Northern clock tower is now part of Riverfront Park, a 100-acre expanse featuring walking trails, such as the 26-mile Centennial Trail that runs 26 miles along the Spokane River to Coeur d' Alene, Idaho.
Another remnant from days gone by can be found on the Davenport's dinner menu. Crab Louis ($18) was the culinary creation of Louis Davenport, a famous restaurateur and perfectionist who demanded that silverware be set exactly one thumb knuckle from the edge of the table.
Davenport offered fresh seafood on his menus as far back as the 1890s. He also conjured up the salad, made on a bed of lettuce with fresh crabmeat (or lobster), hard-boiled egg, sliced tomato and a lively pink dressing of mayonnaise, ketchup and hot sauce.
"For a while San Francisco claimed they were first at the St. Francis Hotel or Solari's restaurant," McArthur said, "but our voice was silent for 15 years 1985-2000. After I showed the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau our menu from 1914, that trumped theirs from 1917!"
"I've told the owners that what they have here is not a hotel. It is a time machine," McArthur declared. "The hotel has not only been restored, but so have all the memories locked up inside of this, silent for 15 years. The anniversary, the wedding nights, the proms. Spokane has all of those memories back again."
The Davenport Hotel and Tower is at 10 S. Post St., Spokane, (509) 455-8888; www.thedavenporthotel.com. Rates range from $299-$2,500.
