That could be because the owner/designer was none other than John C. Ralston, civic engineer with the city of Spokane and the designer of many of the concrete arch bridges built in Spokane in the early twentieth century, including the National Register
Monroe Street Bridge. Ralston was employed as the City of Spokane's chief engineer from 1907-1910, where he "planned and designed more than $8 million worth of municipal
improvements". This seems quite a short tenure given his total output.
Done in the Queen Anne style with Tudor influence, the house looks as new today as it would have when built in in 1900. The grounds surrounding it cover three city lots. Four floors in height, including attic and basement, the house was given several little decorative touches that a non owner designer might not have gone to the trouble to include. These include diamond-paned lights on upper window halves, scroll-sawn rafter tails and purlins and large carved wood acorns atop the newel posts on the stairs at the side of the front porch.
Though it no longer is, the house remained in the Ralston family for 91 years.
Ralston House
The Ralston House is historically significant for its association with John C. Ralston, the Spokane civic engineer who designed and built it in 1900. The house reflects the influence of the Tudor Revival style, as interpreted by Ralston. Ralston was employed as the City of Spokane’s chief engineer from 1907 to 1910 when he planned and designed more than $8 million worth of municipal improvements in the city, including many miles of pavement and six of the nine concrete arch bridges erected during Spokane’s “Golden Age of Bridge Building.” His most noteworthy contribution to Spokane is the Monroe Street Bridge, a city landmark completed in 1911 listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The home remained in the Ralston family for 90 years.
The Ralston House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on its own merit in and as a part of Nettleton's Addition Historic District in 2002.
From Historic Spokane
