Spokane City Hall - Spokane, WA
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T0SHEA
N 47° 39.616 W 117° 25.451
11T E 468150 N 5278628
This is Spokane's "new" city hall, as of 1981. It is the second Art Deco styled building erected in the city of Spokane.
Waymark Code: WMJJ2H
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 11/22/2013
Views: 1
The city hall offices resided in the same building for 68 years, from 1913 until 1981. Beginning in 1978 the 1920s-era Montgomery Ward building at West Spokane Falls Boulevard and North Post Street was renovated to house the City’s offices. Well situated, it over-looks the Lower Spokane Falls, is next to Riverfront Park, and is at the northern edge of the Central Business District of Spokane.
This seven storey Art Deco style city hall is well adorned with floral motif bas-relief Art Deco sculpture at the first and second storey roof lines and more sparsely higher on the building. As this was originally built as a department store, the two lower floors are well decorated and have large windows, which were meant as display windows. The upper five floors, much less decorated, were used solely for storage during Montgomery Ward's tenure in the building.
...The Montgomery Ward building is significant for both historic and architectural reasons. Historically, the Montgomery Ward building symbolizes an important chapter in the history of American commerce. The highly stylized Art Deco architecture of the building was new to Spokane at the time the store was built. An analysis of the Art Deco style nationally shows that Spokane's Montgomery Ward building
is representative of this short lived architectural style...
...The Montgomery Ward building was one of the first to be built in Spokane using the progressive, new architectural style of the period called Art Deco.
From The National Register
The building is in the Washington State Historic Register and was entered into the Spokane Historic Register on June 2nd, 1986. It was designed by the Montgomery Ward engineering department and built by Wells Brothers of Chicago for Montgomery Ward in 1929 and occupied by them until 1978. The city purchased it at that time and, after renovations, moved in in 1981.
Art Deco Bas-Reliefs