Several years ago the Spokane Spokesman-Review began a series of articles featuring "before" and "after" photos of iconic buildings and structures in Spokane, including a short history of the item in question. On July 1, 2013 the subject of the series' article published was the one time Schade Brewery. That article can be read further below.
Construction on the building was begun in 1902 and apparently wasn't completed until 1937. Trapezoidal in shape, the building consists of several separate parts joined together as they were built over the years. The southwest corner is a five story tower with a gable roof hiding behind a stepped parapet and a seven foot diameter window in the parapet. To the north of the tower is a five story section with a clerestory above and a huge semicircular window above the ground floor. Behind both the tower and this section the building steps down in height until it is just two storeys tall at the southeast corner.
At one time a large industrial complex with railway access, the area is now mostly the WSU campus, with the brewery building, the last remaining industrial building, housing the university bookstore, a credit union and a pharmacy. With 20,110 square feet of usable area, the building also houses a number of rentable offices. Though it had fallen into disrepair at the time of its nomination, it has been restored and appears to be fully utilized today.
State prohibition forced the closure of the original Schade Brewery in 1916. Sold in 1918, it remained mostly vacant until becoming a flophouse for transients at the beginning of the depression. Known as the "Hotel de Gink," the shelter operated with the city's blessing from 1930 to 1933. With the end of prohibition the brewery was reopened as Golden Age Brewery, which claimed to brew "
the beer
that made Milwaukee jealous." At that time well known architect G.A. Pehrson was employed to make necessary improvements and changes to the building.
Golden Age sold out to Bohemian in 1948, who, in turn, sold the operation to the Chicago-based Atlantic Brewing Company. In 1957 the building ceased to be a brewery and became a scrap metal storage building, slowly deteriorating for the next thirty years. Now essentially fully restored the old Schade Brewery remains a highly visible landmark in the area. Of the five large-scale breweries which operated in Spokane in the early twentieth century, the Schade Brewery Building is the sole survivor.
Then and Now: Schade Brewery
The Schade Brewery was among several to open around the turn of the 20th century to slake the thirst of working men in Spokane. German immigrant Bernhardt Schade arrived in 1892 and began working for other brewers and dreaming of his own business. His building, with architectural features from his homeland, opened in 1903, even as the temperance movement was growing in influence. Groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League lobbied for abstinence over the next 15 years. Groups argued that alcohol led to domestic violence, child neglect, prostitution and unemployment. And the nation, assisted in part by anti-German sentiment from World War I, passed the 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, effective Jan. 16, 1920. Overnight, Spokane’s grand breweries were shuttered or turned to making soda pop and nonalcoholic beers. Schade was devastated to watch his dream die, and he took his own life in 1921. During the Depression, the building was used as a homeless shelter and soup kitchen. After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the building became the Golden Age Brewery and later Bohemian Breweries until 1957. It passed through several owners before it was purchased by an investment group and converted into office space. It is now called Schade Towers. –
Jesse Tinsley
From the Spokane Spokesman-Review