So, it could be said that this building was shaped by fire. Originally built as the Great Eastern Building for the Great Eastern Dry Goods Company of San Francisco, owned by L. Levinsky, it was gutted by fire on January 24, 1898, leaving only the outside walls standing. The gutted building was purchased by "Colonel" Isaac N. Peyton for $42,000, who rebuilt using the remaining walls, naming the building after himself.
Tragically, before the January, 1898 fire, the upper three floors of the building were apartments, meaning that, when the fire began, around 11:15 on a Monday night, about 150 people were asleep in the building, 7 of which ultimately perished in the fire. The next morning the story occupied the two left hand columns of the front page of the Spokane
edition of Tuesday, January 25, 1898.
A minimum of four architectural firms had a hand in the building with Herman Preusse designing the original Great Eastern Building. Cutter & Malmgren then designed the Peyton Building interior when it was built within the walls of the Great Eastern building. Robert Sweatt designed the 1908 Peyton Annex and Archibald Rigg designed interior repairs after another fire in 1916.
Late in the evening on Jan. 24,1898, a fire started in the basement of John W. Graham & Co. It proved to be the most disastrous fire since The Fire of 1889, destroying the building and leaving only the exterior walls standing. Seven lives were lost and the property loss totaled $240,000.
In August of 1898, Colonel Isaac Newton Peyton bought the property and its ruins for $42,000. He built a five-story building re-using the exterior walls of the Great Eastern and named the new building the
"Peyton," locating a rectangular name plate in the gablet on the north and west walls. Peyton was born in 1842 in Danville, Illinois. He served as a lieutenant in the Civil War. Interestingly, records do not indicate that he ever reached the rank of Colonel although locals called him this. He engaged in flour milling and other activities in Colorado after the war and was a member of the State Legislature. He arrived in Spokane in 1881 and became involved in the mercantile business, real estate, and the insurance industry. Real estate
development served him well since he settled in Spokane shortly before the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He acquired large land holdings in Eastern Washington. Other diversified interests included
mining and banking. He heavily invested in the Le Roi Mine [The Le Roi was the largest, most productive Gold, Silver and Copper mine in Rossland, BC] and sold his shares (70,000) to the British American Corporation for a huge profit. Peyton's interest in banking included serving as the president and largest stock holder in the Exchange National Bank.
After acquiring the Great Eastern Building, Peyton hired the architectural firm, Cutter & Malmgren, to design a new interior for the building and to rebuild the exterior. D.B. Fotheringham was the contractor. The exterior features were repaired, restored, or replicated from original remaining fabric. Union Iron Works of Spokane provided the cast iron columns. At the time, Cutter & Malmgren was one of the most prominent firms in Spokane. Kirtland K. Cutter was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1860. He studied at the Arts League in New York and spent time traveling throughout Europe to study architecture, painting, drawing, and sculpture. He came to Spokane in 1887 and was employed by his uncle as a cashier at Spokane's First National Bank. He formed a firm with John Poetz (Cutter and Poetz) in 1889. They
designed many residential and commercial buildings. When Poetz retired in 1894, Karl Malmgren (1863-1921) became Cutter's partner. Born in Sweden and educated both there and in Germany, Malmgren practiced architecture for eight years in Europe before coming to Spokane in 1889 where he worked for Cutter and Poetz. Some of Cutter & Malmgren's most well-known designs included the Spokane Club, Washington Water and Power/Post Street Substation, the City Steam Plant, and scores of residential buildings for Spokane's most prominent citizens. The partnership dissolved when Cutter moved to Long Beach, California in 1923 to begin a new practice in Southern California.
The facade of the Peyton Building had essentially the same appearance as the Great Eastern Building, with the exception of the name plate. However, use on the upper floors changed from apartments to offices. The ground floor again provided some of downtown Spokane's most desired retail space. John W. Graham & Co. moved back into the building after it was rebuilt, but moved to its own building nearby in 1901.
Robert C. Sweatt was the architect for the Annex. Born in 1872 in Chicago, he acquired his education and training in architecture at Columbia University. Following graduation, he worked in the profession for three years in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. He arrived in Spokane in 1904, where he went into partnership with Lewis Stritesky, under the name Stritesky and Sweatt. His parents, John B. and Elsie L. Sweatt, had come to Spokane a year earlier. John Sweatt was a contractor and builder who had arrived in Spokane during a big building boom. Presumably, his son saw opportunities for architects in Spokane. The partnership was short-lived, dissolving in 1906. Sweatt later practiced with architect Joseph Levesque, designing many
schools in Washington and Oregon.
In 1916, a fire swept through the Peyton Building's corner drug store, Murgirtroyd's. Another prominent Spokane architect, Archibald Rigg, was called in to direct the repair work, mainly on the interior. Archibald Rigg (1878-1959) was born in Canada and educated at Trinity College (Toronto), Columbia University, and the University of Edinburgh. He worked in Illinois before coming to Spokane where he was a draftsman for Cutter & Malmgren, and Albert Held. He left Spokane for Indianapolis but returned in 1912 and formed a partnership with Julius Zittel. He later formed a partnership with Roland Vantyne (1887-1938) that lasted for twenty-three years.
The Peyton Building and Peyton Annex's association with four prominent Spokane architectural firms is significant in telling the story of the building's architectural heritage. Spokane consistently attracted talented architects and the city was well-known throughout the country as a place with noteworthy architecture. The September 1908, issue of The Western Architect was devoted entirely to Spokane. It marveled at the growth of the city, its prosperity, and architecture, describing it as "the best built modern city on the continent".
From The Register