Spokane Historical

Spokane Historical www.spokanehistorical.org

Spokane Historical is a web and mobile platform for telling stories of Spokane and Eastern Washington.

The stories were written by students at Eastern Washington University.

The newest story on Spokane Historical takes a look at Spokane's first Pride Parade.
03/27/2026

The newest story on Spokane Historical takes a look at Spokane's first Pride Parade.

In 1992, Spokane’s first pride march moved forward under restriction and threat, as participants took to the sidewalks to demand visibility in a city that had yet to make space for them.

Final post (for now) honoring the immigrants who build the Inland Northwest.The focus here is on the Sanchez family, who...
02/25/2026

Final post (for now) honoring the immigrants who build the Inland Northwest.

The focus here is on the Sanchez family, who fled a war-torn Mexico in 1910 and became successful orchardists in the Yakima Valley.

In 1885, the Northern Pacific Railway arrived in the Yakima Valley and attracted immigrants from all over the world. Yakima and nearby towns experienced rapid growth. Early twentieth century Yakima Valley consisted of orchards, hop fields, and vineyards. The excellent climate and soil, abundant wate...

Post--oh shoot, I lost track--post 7, I think, honoring immigrants to the region. One of the most unusual immigration st...
02/16/2026

Post--oh shoot, I lost track--post 7, I think, honoring immigrants to the region.

One of the most unusual immigration stories in our region is Henry Shuttleworth, the son of a British official in India and an Indian (South Asian) woman there, he came to the region with the fur trade and married an Indian (Native American) wife.

Frontier Washington was full of surprising and unexpected character, but perhaps none more so than Henry Shuttleworth. Shuttleworth was born in Bengal, India around 1837, the son of a colonial indigo farmer. While his youth is largely unknown, as a young man Shuttleworth received some form of educat...

Post 7 honoring immigrants in the region.Immigrant laborers were common in the Inland Northwest, but many left only trac...
02/13/2026

Post 7 honoring immigrants in the region.

Immigrant laborers were common in the Inland Northwest, but many left only traces in the historical record. We find glimpses of them in business records sometimes, such as with the vinegar works along Hangman Creek.

The area known as Vinegar Flats has a diverse history and was once home to local tribes, pioneers from the East coast, as well as new immigrants moving into Spokane. As early as 1874 there were small farms and orchards springing up with apple and peach trees hanging with fruit. Joshua R. Stafford ha...

Post 6 remembering our region's many immigrants. Immigrants came to the Inland Northwest from all over the world, includ...
02/09/2026

Post 6 remembering our region's many immigrants.

Immigrants came to the Inland Northwest from all over the world, including Mexico. When the US Army waged war against the Native tribes in 1858, Colonel George Wright's forces included civilian muleteers from Mexico. The 19th century saw many immigrants from Mexico and Latin America, including newspaperman Alberto Ricardo.

To many early white settlers, “Mexican” was synonymous with criminal. In 1867, the Walla Walla Statesman Review published several editorials, which, defined Mexicans as deceitful, jealous, and fickle. The Walla Walla Statesman editorialized that “The Mexican is not a man or a brother he is a t...

Honoring immigrants, post 5. The ideology of white supremacy is once again surging in the United States. But what do peo...
02/07/2026

Honoring immigrants, post 5.

The ideology of white supremacy is once again surging in the United States. But what do people mean by "white?" More than a century ago, a Spokane immigrant pushed that question all the way to the Supreme Court.

White Americans of the early 1900s were often obsessed with concepts of race and whiteness. But what did they mean by "white?" In 1912 a recent immigrant from India to Spokane would put the idea to the test.Born in Calcutta in 1880, A. K. Mozumdar was trained in Hindu spirituality from an early age....

Post 4 honoring immigrants in the Inland Northwest. Another example of a rural immigrant community was the Italian commu...
02/04/2026

Post 4 honoring immigrants in the Inland Northwest. Another example of a rural immigrant community was the Italian community that came to the Priest River more than a century ago.

The Italian Settlement – Unique Community near Priest River Come to America to work on the railroad! The call went out to several foreign countries by the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Great Northern Railroad in the late 1890's. Many jumped at the chance to follow their dreams – the Ame...

Post 3 honoring the immigrants who have and continue to build the communities of the inland Northwest. Immigration is a ...
02/01/2026

Post 3 honoring the immigrants who have and continue to build the communities of the inland Northwest. Immigration is a rural as well as an urban phenomenon. The nature of chain migration (extended families and neighbors from one part of the world follow each other to another) meant that some rural communities tended to have large numbers of immigrants from one part of the world. In the case of Uniontown and some other Palouse communities, it was German immigrants.

You are looking at St. Boniface Church, named after the German apostle. It is the first consecrated Catholic Church in the State of Washington. The church not only represents the spiritual commitment of early Palouse immigrants and their modern-day ancestors, but also the commitment to building, fro...

Second post in a series honoring Spokane's immigrant communities.
01/30/2026

Second post in a series honoring Spokane's immigrant communities.

Early Spokane had more ethnic and religious diversity than we often realize. Many Japanese immigrants were drawn to Eastern Washington's railroad and mining jobs in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some returned to Japan when employment ran out, but others chose to stay and make a life in the Sp...

This is the first in a series of posts honoring Spokane's immigrant communities, past and present. First up, the melting...
01/28/2026

This is the first in a series of posts honoring Spokane's immigrant communities, past and present. First up, the melting pot that was Trent Alley.

In 1913, the east side of Spokane's downtown teemed with small businesses run by Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Greek and German immigrants. Their restaurants, laundries and baths, barber shops, hotels, groceries and pool halls mainly served the city's working-class residents. Japanese photog...

The Chamberlin House: The work of a forgotten Spokane builder.By Joanne Percy
01/13/2026

The Chamberlin House: The work of a forgotten Spokane builder.
By Joanne Percy

Spokane was a booming city in the early part of the twentieth century attracting a great many land prospectors from across the country. Newcomers such as William Nettleton and William Pettet may have platted the West Central area in 1887 but it was Gilbert Chamberlin and his son Ernest who designed....

Address

103 Patterson Hall
Cheney, WA
99004

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Spokane Historical posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The School

Send a message to Spokane Historical:

Shortcuts

Share

Category