Local History Videos

Old Images of Spokane, Washington: Vintage Photos and Archive Film

by

Debbie Death
in
Old photo of the Monroe Street Bridge Spokane Washington

Glimpse history through old images of Spokane, Washington.

Spokane in 1902

Old photograph from about 1902 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1902. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup extract of an old photograph from about 1902 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Closeup of two extracts from the panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1902. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup extract of an old photograph from about 1902 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Closeup of two extracts from the panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1902. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Spokane’s Davenport Restaurant

Spokane’s Davenport Restaurant was an internationally renowned venue which offered popular Sunday afternoon tea dances.

Old photo of the Davenport Restaurant in Spokane, taken around the year 1908
Old photo of the Davenport Restaurant in Spokane, Washington, taken around 1908. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup of an extract from an old photo of the Davenport Restaurant in Spokane, taken around the year 1908
Closeup of an extract of the old photo of the Davenport Restaurant in Spokane, Washington, taken around 1908. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup of an extract from an old photo of the Davenport Restaurant in Spokane, taken around the year 1908
Closeup of an extract of the old photo of the Davenport Restaurant in Spokane, Washington, taken around 1908. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Spokane in 1911

Old photograph from about 1911 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1911. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup extract of an old photograph from about 1911 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Closeup of an extract from the panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1911. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup extract of an old photograph from about 1911 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Closeup of an extract from the panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1911. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup extract of an old photograph from about 1911 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Closeup of an extract from the panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1911. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup extract of an old photograph from about 1911 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Closeup of an extract from the panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1911. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Spokane in 1953

Old photograph from about 1953 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1953. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup extract of an old photograph from about 1953 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Closeup of an extract from the panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1953. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup extract of an old photograph from about 1953 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Closeup of an extract from the panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1953. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup extract of an old photograph from about 1953 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Closeup of an extract from the panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1953. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Closeup extract of an old photograph from about 1953 showing a panorama of Spokane in Washington
Closeup of an extract from the panorama of Spokane, Washington, taken sometime around 1953. With thanks to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Spokane Then and Now

These two videos show old photos of Spokane, then a photo of what the same location looked like in 2017.

Then and Now: Downtown Spokane – The Spokesman-Review on YouTube

Just one little error in this second video – 5:15 is at south Howard, not north Howard, so the wrong modern location is shown. But these errors easily happen, and otherwise this is a brilliant video.

Then and Now II: Downtown Spokane – The Spokesman-Review on YouTube

Remembering Spokane

This 50 minute programme made in 1997 focuses on the years 1924 to 1974, using old photos, archive films, and conversations with Spokane’s long term residents.

You can watch as Streetcar 202, taken out of service at the end of August 1936 with the introduction of modern buses, is engulfed by fire in Natatorium Park, where officials had stuffed it with hay bales and set it alight.

Remembering Spokane – KSPS Public TV on YouTube

Spokane’s Chinatown

More than a century ago, the area of Downtown where today you’ll find the Grand Hotel was the centre of Spokane’s Chinatown.

The goldrush brought the first wave of Chinese immigrants to the area in the 1850s. Later more chinese incomers arrived to work on the trans-continental railways, making up 90-95% of the railroad’s workforce.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 stopped legal chinese immigration to the Unites States until the act was repealed in 1943. Most of the chinese immigrants who settled in the US were men – it was 1970 until the US resident chinese population achieved gender balance. Because of that, the chinese cultural area slowly faded away, and was not replaced by the chinese workers arriving after 1943, who preferred to head to the larger economies of big cities.

The history behind Spokane’s Chinatown – KREM 2 News on YouTube

More about Washington