These "Then" and "Now" photos, taken from Market Street itself, were taken from just south of Olympic Avenue, looking north. The first building on the left is the Art Deco
Pay 'n Takit Food Store, while the first building on the right is the
Kehoe Block.
When
James Jerome Hill, generally known as J.J., brought his
Great Northern Railway to Spokane, the decision was made to set up the railway shops, service center and roundhouse adjacent to what became the town of Hillyard, named, naturally enough, after J.J. himself, literally,
Hill's Yard. Platted in 1892, the same year the Great Northern began construction of its huge rail yard and locomotive shops, Hillyard remained a separate entity from Spokane until 1924, at which time it was annexed by Spokane.
Initially a small community of wooden, stick built shacks and business buildings, in the early twentieth century the prosperity brought about by the presence of the Great Northern yards gave rise to much new construction, primarily of much more substantial brick and stone buildings, forming the Hillyard business section we see today. Prosperity continued until the closing of the yards in the early 1980s, a culmination of the mergers of the Great Northern into the Burlington Northern Railroad and eventually the BNSF Railway, resulting on the relocation of the railroad yards to Yardley. The loss of their only industry to speak of created instant economic woes for Hillyard, which continue to this day, with its continuing to be the poorest neighborhood in the state of Washington.
The Hillyard Historic Business District proper is only about four blocks long and a single block wide, running along Market Street, bounded by Everett Avenue on the north and Wabash Avenue on the south. In the district are 19 contributing and 13 non-contributing resources.
Hillyard Historic Business District
The Hillyard Historic Business District has 19 contributing resources and 13 non-contributing resources for a total of 32 resources. These include 19 Historic Contributing, nine Historic NonContributing,
four Non-Historic Non-Contributing resources.
The Hillyard Historic Business District consists largely of brick masonry and formed concrete block buildings. Constructed quickly and economically, many of the buildings are simple commercial block
structures with minimal stylistic embellishment... Many of the buildings were designed and built by noted Spokane developer, Arthur
D. Jones, and his real estate development business known as the Hillyard Townsite Company. Three of the buildings were specifically designed by prominent Spokane architects including the United Hillyard Bank Building (built in 1920) designed by Henry Bertelson, the Pay 'n Takit Food Store (built in 1932) by Gustav Albin Pehrson, and the Hillyard Masonic Temple (built in 1931) designed by the architectural firm, Rigg and VanTyne.
Although most of the contributing buildings in the Hillyard Historic Business District are plain commercial block structures, two exceptions exist. As the only two buildings representative of their respective styles in the Hillyard Historic Business District, the United Hillyard Bank Building is a rare example of the Beaux Arts style and the Pay 'n Takit Food Store is a fine example of the Art Deco style.
The majority of contributing buildings in the district retain good exterior integrity. Five exceptional buildings, the Hillyard Laundry, Brown-Paulsen Block, United Hillyard Bank Building, Pay 'n Takit Food Store, and the Hillyard Masonic Temple, are pivotal resources in the
historic district. They retain their historic facades including near-original storefront design, finish, and fabric. Some of the other buildings in the district display alterations at street-level such as the Bell-Victor Block and the Yukon Block. The transom windows of both buildings are covered with plywood sheathing and the original storefront windows have been replaced.
From the NRHP Nomination Form