Sources for Spokane Historical Research

Your final project is to create four interpretive stops--text and images only--for Spokane Historical. I want to make this as easy a project as possible, while creating high-quality stops. The pedagogical goal is to have you learn how to contribute to a digital history project and also to have something out there with your name on it to show to future employers.

It is strongly recommended that you choose four buildings on the National Register for Historic Preservation. Working from the register will make your life easier! You will know when you begin that the building is historically significant, there will be nomination form with the basic history of the building already provided, and additional research will be relatively easy.

Here are some good sources for researching your buildings:

1. First stop, the National Register of Historic Places database. What you are looking for is the Register Nomination form for the building (here for example is the form for the Davenport Hotel). If the form is not available on the database, check with the Spokane Historic Preservation Office, particularly the Spokane Register of Historic Places. If your building appears on one of the Historic Spokane Heritage Tours, you are in luck. If your property is listed on the National Register but you cannot find the form at either of the above databases, you should be able to find a paper copy of the form at the Spokane Historic Preservation Office, or the Northwest Room of the Spokane Public Library, or perhaps in government documents at the JFK library.
2. An excellent book for researching the history of downtown Spokane is Spokane's Building Blocks by Robert B. Hyslop,  available here.
3. The above sources are excellent, but somewhat dry. Once you have done the basic research, see what you can find in online newspapers. Start with Google News Archive, and don't forget Chronicling America. Search for the name of the building, the name of the owner(s) and architect, the street address (note that some buildings will have multiple addresses, and that a few Spokane street names have changed over the years), and for the names of businesses or prominent individuals who one resided there. 
4. Another good source of local color is the original history of Spokane, A History of Spokane (1911) by Nelson Wayne Durham is the most comprehensive (if biased) history of early Spokane and contains some excellent images. It might also be available at Archive.org.
5. Spokane City Directories (1880s-present): Before there were telephone books there were city directories, which came out yearly and listed by name every person living in Spokane, their address, their profession, and other vital information. business were also listed and the pages are crammed with advertising for those businesses. Collections of Spokane City Directories are available at the Eastern Region Branch of the State Archives, at the Northwest Room of the Spokane Public Library, and at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Cultures.
6. Sanborn Maps: These colorful, detailed, block-by-block maps of early Spokane are a great source of images. Sanborn maps are not available online (actually there is a commercial database, but those maps are black-and-white only and I don't think EWU subscribes) but can be found at the Northwest Room of the Spokane Public Library and also at the MAC.
7. There are many other books that might yield information. See this page for lots and lots of additional research suggestions, including where to find historic images.

This will be a fun project!