Spokane Falls

The Monroe Street Bridge is a deck arch bridge in the northwestern United States that spans the Spokane River in Spokane, Washington. It was built 112 years ago in 1911 by the city of Spokane, and was designed by city engineer John Chester Ralston, assisted in construction supervision by Morton Macartney (and by assistant engineers J. F. Greene and P.F. Kennedy) with ornamentation provided by the firm of Kirtland Kelsey Cutter and Karl G. Malmgren as part of Cutter & Malmgren.At completion, it was the largest concrete arch bridge in the U.S. and the third longest in the world. After more than ninety years of service, it was closed in January 2003 for restoration and reopened in September 2005.

River Park Square is a shopping mall and entertainment complex in Spokane, Washington. The shopping center was originally opened in 1974. Following years of decline, the center was redeveloped in 1999 using public and private funds in an effort to revitalize downtown Spokane. The mall, still privately owned by Cowles Company, is anchored by Nordstrom and contains an outpost of AMC Theatres.

Spokane ( (listen) spoh-KAN) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, 92 miles (148 km) south of the Canadian border, 18 miles (30 km) west of the Washington–Idaho border, and 279 miles (449 km) east of Seattle, along I-90. Spokane is the economic and cultural center of the Spokane metropolitan area, the Spokane–Coeur d'Alene combined statistical area, and the Inland Northwest. It is known as the birthplace of Father's Day, and locally by the nickname of "Lilac City". Officially, Spokane goes by the nickname of Hooptown USA, due to Spokane annually hosting Spokane Hoopfest, the world's largest basketball tournament. The city and the wider Inland Northwest area are served by Spokane International Airport, 5 miles (8 km) west of Downtown Spokane. According to the 2010 census, Spokane had a population of 208,916, making it the second-largest city in Washington, and the 101st-largest city in the United States. At the 2020 census, Spokane's population was 228,989. A 2021 estimate sets the population of the Spokane Metropolitan Area at 593,466.The first people to live in the area, the Spokane tribe (their name meaning "children of the sun" in Salishan), lived off plentiful game. David Thompson explored the area with the westward expansion and establishment of the North West Company's Spokane House in 1810. This trading post was the first long-term European settlement in Washington. Completion of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1881 brought settlers to the Spokane area. The same year it was officially incorporated as a city under the name of Spokane Falls (it was re-incorporated under its current name ten years later). In the late 19th century, gold and silver were discovered in the Inland Northwest. The local economy depended on mining, timber, and agriculture until the 1980s. Spokane hosted the first environmentally themed World's fair at Expo '74. Many of the downtown area's older Romanesque Revival-style buildings were designed by architect Kirtland Kelsey Cutter after the Great Fire of 1889. The city is also home to the Riverfront and Manito parks, the Smithsonian-affiliated Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, the Davenport Hotel, and the Fox and Bing Crosby theaters. The Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, and the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist serves as that of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane. The Spokane Washington Temple in the east of the county serves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Gonzaga University was established in 1887 by the Jesuits, and the private Presbyterian Whitworth University was founded three years later and moved to north Spokane in 1914. The city's western suburb of Airway Heights is home to Fairchild Air Force Base as well as two large casino hotels. In sports, the region's professional and semi-professional sports teams include the Spokane Indians in Minor League Baseball and Spokane Chiefs in junior ice hockey. The Gonzaga Bulldogs collegiate basketball team competes at the Division I level. As of 2010, Spokane's major daily newspaper, The Spokesman-Review, had a daily circulation of over 76,000.

A fair sized Chinatown existed in Spokane for years that started when the railroad came through in 1883. It consisted of a network of alleys between Front Avenue (today's Spokane Falls Boulevard) and Main Avenue that stretched east from Howard Avenue to Bernard Street for approximately four blocks. The Chinese population gradually thinned out until the alley became abandoned by the 1940s. Virtually all that remained of the Chinatown alleys were demolished as part of construction projects spurred by Spokane's Expo '74.

The Diocese of Spokane is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the U.S. state of Washington. Headquartered in Spokane, the diocese encompasses Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille, Lincoln, Spokane, Adams, Whitman, Franklin, Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin Counties. Its cathedral is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes in Spokane. On March 12, 2015, the Holy See announced Thomas Anthony Daly, the first auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of San José, to be the seventh Bishop of Spokane. Canonically erected on December 17, 1913, the territories of the diocese were taken from what was then known as Diocese of Seattle. The diocese is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Seattle; its metropolitan bishop is Paul Etienne. Approximately 90,000 Catholics in Washington state are served by the Diocese. There are 82 parishes in the diocese.

The Spokane City Hall Building is a historic building in Spokane, Washington. It was designed by German-born architect Julius Zittel, and built in 1912. It was used as Spokane's city hall until 1982, when it was replaced with new offices in a former Montgomery Ward department store. The old city hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 21, 1985.

The Federal Building and U.S. Post Office, Spokane, Washington is a historic post office, courthouse, and custom house building at Spokane in Spokane County, Washington. It is a courthouse for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.

The Empire State Building, also known as the Great Western Savings and Loan Building, is a historic building in Downtown, Spokane, Washington. It was designed by architect John K. Dow, and built in 1899 for Charles Sweeny, an investor who had served under Union Army General George Armstrong Custer during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since August 18, 1977.

The Spokane Flour Mill, commonly known as the Flour Mill among locals, is a historic building in Downtown, Spokane, Washington located adjacent to the Spokane Falls on the river's north bank. The building was constructed in 1895 and designed by the Edward P. Allis company. The Flour Mill served as a flour mill from 1900 until 1972; it was converted into offices and a retail mall in advance of Spokane hosting the 1974 World's Fair, and has continued to serve those purposes since. As of 2022, the Flour Mill is home to offices, restaurants and shops.

The Spokesman-Review is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Spokane, Washington, the city's sole remaining daily publication. It has the third-highest readership among daily newspapers in the state, with most of its readership base in eastern Washington and northern Idaho.

The Whitten Block is a historic five-story building in Spokane, Washington. It was designed by architect Lorenzo M. Boardman, and built in 1890 for investor Leydford B. Whitten at a cost of $40,000. Tenants included a dry goods store, a flower shop, a shoe repair store, a candy store as well as clothing stores.In the 1990s the Whitten building and adjacent Miller building were renovated to be the Hotel Lusso. The building once was the location of Louis Davenport's restaurant before the construction of his hotel and currently as part of the Hotel Lusso, is part of The Davenport Hotel Collection. The Whitten Block was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 1993.

The Miller Block is a historic four-story building in Spokane, Washington. It was designed by William J. Carpenter in the Romanesque Revival style, and built in 1890. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since May 4, 1998.