Near the south edge of the fort's grounds, the Quartermaster Stable is the second building one will encounter upon entering the site. On the road leading into the fort is a large white painted archway. Shortly after passing through the archway one will come upon the large wood frame stable which is about 200 feet to the south of the road. A walking trail leads to the stable from the road. Definitely the largest building which remains, the stable may have been the largest building built at the fort.
Built in 1880, Fort Spokane served as a frontier military post until the troops were transferred to Cuba to fight in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Government officials who ran the Colville and Spokane Indian Agencies then took over the fort and by 1900 it became the Fort Spokane Indian Boarding School. Teachers, clergy and Indian children came to live here. The last people to occupy the fort were the doctors, nurses and patients of the Tuberculosis Hospital and Sanitarium that served the tribes of the area starting in 1910 until Fort Spokane's final closure in 1929.
Fort Spokane was transferred to the National Park Service in 1960, and major restoration began on the four remaining original buildings: the Quartermaster Stable, built in 1884, the Powder Magazine, built in 1888, the Reservoir, built in 1889, and the Guardhouse, built in 1892.
Given its relative importance to the area, we were surprised to see how little attention the writers of the American Guide Series book,
Washington: a guide to the Evergreen State, paid to Fort Spokane. Note that, when they passed by, Lake Roosevelt had yet to fill and many of the towns soon to be flooded had not yet been moved to higher ground. This is their brief mention of passing it while approaching the Spokane River:
LINCOLN, 10.5 m. (1,800 alt., 200 pop.), a short distance from the confluence of the Spokane and Columbia Rivers, will be moved to higher ground when the waters rise behind Grand Coulee Dam. The peach orchards along the river below Lincoln are already being uprooted and burned.
Right from Lincoln on a dirt road is the SITE OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY POST, FORT SPOKANE, erected in 1881. For a time it was occupied by a small detachment of infantry, but as the Nez Perces on the Colville Reservation (they were military prisoners after the Chief Joseph War of 1877) were giving no trouble, the fort was abandoned in the early years of the twentieth century. Here the Spokane River cuts its way towards the Columbia.
From Washington: a guide to the Evergreen State, page 434
The Guardhouse now serves as the visitor center and museum. The other three buildings are open to visitors from May through September. The grounds are open to explore year round. The reservoir, though restored, is outside of the boundary of the district as it lies on private property.
Guardhouse
Built in 1892 by the U.S. Army as part of the complex of 45 structures constructed by the Army beginning in 1880 near the confluence of the Columbia and Spokane rivers. The purpose of the fort was to keep the peace between the Indian reservations to the north and the influx of settlers into the upper Columbia basin. After the Army withdrew in 1898, the complex was adapted for use as, first, an Indian agency school, and, second, an Indian agency sanitorium
and hospital; the guardhouse was adapted for use as a bathhouse and sewing rooms. From 1930-60 most of the surrounding structures were dismantled or relocated and the surrounding land cultivated or used for pasture. NPS took over in 1960 and has rehabilitated the guardhouse for use as a visitor center.
One of five remaining intact structures from the original fort complex, the guardhouse is one of the key features anchoring the historic district. Despite some remodeling for adaptive reuse,
the structure retains its essential architectural features and is considered to be a contributing element of the historic district.
From the NRHP Inventory Sheet