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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Then and Now: Rutter Parkway (Update)

Rutter Parkway, paved in 1937-38 by employees of the Works Progress Administration, is still a popular route to traverse the area around the Little Spokane River on the north side. Photographed Wednesday, May 13, 2015. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
Rutter Parkway, paved in 1937-38 by employees of the Works Progress Administration, is still a popular route to traverse the area around the Little Spokane River on the north side. Photographed Wednesday, May 13, 2015. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

The Then and Now column for 5/18/2015: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/may/18/then-and-now-rutter-parkway-is-bankers-legacy/

Additional information about R.L. Rutter: Rutter and his first wife divorced in the mid-1920s. From news accounts, it wasn't amicable. The couple had three children, mostly grown by then. It may have been the impetus for him to buy his country home and move out of the city. About 10 years later, he married again. I am not sure of the circumstances, but by the time Spokane and Eastern Trust Co. was forced into a merger with Seattle First National around 1936, Rutter was no longer the president. That was the depths of the Great Depression and sudden changes in the banking industry were common. Whatever the case, Rutter was available to serve on the county's welfare administration and direct federal funds to various projects. As both supervisor and road supervisor of the Five Mile Township, he steered some of the money to the paving project that is now Rutter Parkway. With the sale of his company, Western Union Insurance, he was independently wealthy. Toward the end of his life, he lived at the Roosevelt Apartments on Seventh Ave.

Lynn Marie Sullivan, who attended college in Spokane in 1983, wrote to say she rented an apartment in the original Rutter family home at 1725 W. Pacific in Browne's Addition.

Sullivan: "In the fall of 1983, I moved into a one bedroom apartment on the second floor of the original Rutter family home in Browns Addition.  My landlady was a 96 year old widow who lived on the first floor.  She and her husband bought it in the 50s.  Her name was Mrs. Tracy.  Five garages had been constructed out back (outside the walled back yard) when the house was converted to apartment.  The garages were no longer used when I moved in.  Many of the fine features of the house were still in tact -- especially in Mrs. Tracy's main floor apartment.  Lots of grand dark wood.  I remember an in-wall refrigerator in the professional kitchen and servant's stairs that had been blocked off.

The house is now in a state of disrepair (or it was in the summer of 2014 when I drove by).  The address of the house is 1725 W. Pacific Avenue.  The two apartments upstairs were accessed off the back yard and their address was 145 S. Oak.  I had a fireplace in my apartment; there were two fireplaces in the other apartment (pretty cool!).  The rooms were huge.  I never saw the other two apartments on the main floor. I think I learned then that the house was designed by Kirkland Cutter.  He used lots of basalt on the exterior and it even has a grand stone perimeter wall."



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