One Of North Side’s Best-Known Homes For Sale
It’s a giant raspberry parfait in a ice-milk neighborhood.
The bright pink lady, an elegant Queen Anne Victorian, draws stares, speculation and wonder.
The house at 908 W. Frederick, a block east of Monroe, is said to be the third-oldest house north of the Spokane River. And it’s for sale.
At the last open house, Windermere agent Thomas Carney counted 170 “just curious” visitors anxious to peek at one of the North Side’s best known houses.
It was built in 1887 by a successful Coeur d’Alene miner for his bride-tobe, sparing no expense. But his fiance jilted him and the miner sold the house in 1889 to John A. Currie, a real estate investor and one of Spokane’s first city councilmen.
Spokane’s first mayor, Robert W. Forrest may also have lived in the house, according to some accounts.
An 1890s illustrated Spokane map shows the house with nothing but a few trees between it and the old race track at Corbin Park.
It’s easy to imagine Currie and his pals standing at the windows of the third-floor cupola, watching the ponies at the park.
Do city fathers still stand guard from the cupola?
“I don’t know if there are ghosts,” says Carney, smiling.
Today, the house is as pink on the inside as out. The last owners, Evelyn and Charles Packard, lived there 20 years.
“She has a passion for pink; she’s loved it all her life,” says Evelyn Packard’s sister, Millicent Daniel.
The home is well-preserved, down to original doorknobs, decorated metal grate covers and the original wood mantel and fireplace in the parlor. Heavy wood doors hang on thick hinges. Tall windows are surrounded by original, unpainted woodwork.
A living room, parlor, dining room and kitchen fill the main floor. Four bedrooms are upstairs.
And then there’s the attic.
“I love it up here,” says Carney, gazing around the vast, rough-hewn cedar attic. The ceilings are high and pitched, like the inside of a Swiss chalet.
It’s a small step up into the cupola for a bird’s-nest view of the North Side.
In 1899, the house was bought by James L. Ford, owner of a successful Spokane investment brokerage. James, his wife Lydia, and their five teenagers stayed for 25 years.
Daughter Mabel was a music student when the family moved in. She later worked as a musician. For the last 30 years of her life she was secretary for the Spokane Rotary Club.
Her brother, James A. Ford, lived in the house briefly. He later became managing secretary of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce and is credited with the idea of locating the civic center along the Spokane River.
After Mabel and her mother left the home in 1928, it housed a series of renters including a blacksmith and a laborer. From 1930 to 1932, it was the Full Gospel Conference of the World school.
In 1943, Ulrich Lipp, a Washington Water Power manager, moved in with his wife Margaret and son John. The Lipps probably did most of the remodeling inside and out.
The city of Spokane building department has permits for Lipp to add an attached garage, a picket fence, shakes and, in 1949, more than $1,000 worth of interior alterations.
Ceilings were lowered, stairs enclosed, closets added.
Carney says he’s heard that a domed ceiling, painted with a mural, soars above one of the false ceilings.
Some suspect a second fireplace is hidden behind a bedroom wall.
“From the outside to the inside, it’s just a unique house,” says Daniel.
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