Bump Block AKA Hotel Carlyle AKA Carlyle Hotel - Spokane, WA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Given the fact that the 1889 fire took out almost all of the downtown area of Spokane, the Hotel Carlyle, construction on which began in 1890, is one of the oldest standing hotels in the city. Designed by prominent local architects Loren L Rand and John K Dow, it was built as a Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotel. Following the economic collapse of 1893 the hotel went into receivership and was owned and operated by the the Northwest and Pacific Hypotheekbank from 1894 until its sale to Spokane businessman John Hieber in 1908. It was he who undertook the expansion and gave the hotel the name Hotel Carlyle. The name remained unchanged until it became the Carlyle Hotel in the 1920s, though the name painted on the north face of the building still reads Hotel Carlyle.

By 1950, the original function of the Carlyle Hotel, renting furnished rooms, had changed to include apartments. That year the building contained 48 apartments and 55 hotel rooms. Following modifications in the 1950s the Carlyle Hotel evolved into a provider of low income, furnished rental rooms for residents of the downtown area, once again becoming a true Single Room Occupancy hotel.

Today the building is operated as the Carlyle Care Center. The Carlyle Care Center (CCC) is a 127-bed assisted living facility providing residential and assisted care for individuals 18 year of age and older. CCC specializes in caring for individuals with chronic mental illness, but also serves those with developmental disabilities, dementia, and/or substance abuse issues.

The Hotel Carlyle is one of the few remaining hotels which have been witness to two of the city's earliest periods of substantial growth, 1889-1893 and 1900-1910. As such, it functioned as an SRO continuously for about 110 years, much longer than almost any others in Spokane. The majority ceased to operate as SROs in the 1960s or 1970s.

Hotel Carlyle
The Bump Block, located at the southwest corner of Second Avenue and Post Street, is a seven-story brick masonry structure with a basalt rubble foundation and a flat built-up roof. It exhibits characteristics of the Brick Commercial Style, distinguished as well by classically inspired elements such as the overhanging corona and modillion block of the cornice, and the round-arched windows with decorative keystones on the third floor. The building, constructed in 1890, was significantly enlarged in 1909. At that time, the original 50 foot (fronting Second Avenue) by 100 foot footprint was expanded southward, along Post Street, by forty feet. Also, the height of the building was raised by three stories, which entailed removal of the original roof and construction of a new cornice. These additions were designed in such a way as to replicate the original exterior appearance of the lower four floors and, through the use of similar Brick Commercial design elements on the upper floors, to create a new but cohesive structure.
From the Historic Spokane