This is, in its own right, a very interesting and imaginative building, with much of the architect's labor expended on the centralized entry. Built by the firm of the
Huetter Construction Company, the design is the handiwork of well known and respected architect Gustav Pehrson. Pehrson, a Swedish-born architect, came to Spokane in 1913, worked closely with Kirtland Cutter and designed hundreds of buildings before his death in 1968 at the age of 85.
In the Beaux Arts building are 22 studio apartments, 25 one-bedroom units, 13 two-bedroom units, and one three-bedroom suite. Built of reinforced poured concrete, the building has undergone very little change over the years; so little, in fact that, as of 2000, the year of its inclusion in the National Register, the original 1929 wallpaper still lined the hallways. We know not whether this remains the case.
When the
Palatial Roosevelt Apartments opened in November of 1929, just after the huge stock market crash which precipitated
The Depression, the Spokane Spokesman-Review ran a two page spread on the apartments, on pages 12 & 13, with descriptions of the building and congratulatory notes from many prominent Spokane businesses. The screen capture below shows the spread. To view the proper pages at the URL below enter "7" in the page number input box.
