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Historic register includes variety of structures

The Hillyard Laundry, 3108 E. Olympic Ave., is among lesser-known buildings on the historic register. It was built in 1908 by Charles Carr, who owned the blacksmith shop next door, and home to the Hillyard Hand Laundry operated by three Japanese immigrants from 1906 to 1950. Photo courtesy of the Spokane City-County Historic Preservation Office (Photo courtesy of the Spokane City-County Historic Preservation Office / The Spokesman-Review)
Stefanie Pettit The Spokesman-Review
The Hillyard Laundry, 3108 E. Olympic Ave., is among lesser-known buildings on the historic register. It was built in 1908 by Charles Carr, who owned the blacksmith shop next door, and home to the Hillyard Hand Laundry operated by three Japanese immigrants from 1906 to 1950. Photo courtesy of the Spokane City-County Historic Preservation Office (Photo courtesy of the Spokane City-County Historic Preservation Office / The Spokesman-Review)

The Campbell House, Davenport Hotel, Royal Riblet Mansion (Arbor Crest Winery), Patsy Clark Mansion and even the Monroe Street Bridge are all on the Spokane Register of Historic Places.

But there’s a common misconception that the register is populated only with magnificent architectural specimens like these – structures big and beautiful and associated with famous names from the city’s past.

Not so, said Aimee Flinn, historic preservation compliance specialist with the City-County of Spokane Historic Preservation Office.

“There are about 320 properties listed,” she said. “Some are in need of maintenance, and some are pretty plain and unremarkable looking.”

What they look for when a property is nominated for possible listing on the register, she said, is whether it meets certain criteria, such as what may have taken place there or how it has benefited the neighborhood or other factors of historical significance.

“They are definitely not all architectural wonders or even cute,” Flinn said.

Take, for example, the decidedly not-cute old Hillyard Laundry Building, a yellow two-story formed concrete block building at 3108 E. Olympic Ave., built in 1908 by Charles Carr, who owned the blacksmith shop next door. It was there that three Japanese immigrants operated the Hillyard Hand Laundry from 1906 to 1950.

Or consider the small Hans Moldenhauer House at 808 S. Lincoln St. Built in 1918, it is architecturally significant as an Arts-and-Crafts-style bungalow. But it is even more noteworthy as the home of the internationally renowned musicologist Hans Moldenhauer, who fled Nazi Germany, founded the Spokane Conservatory of Music and amassed an amazing collection of 100,000 musical documents, described by Sydney Verba of the Harvard University Library as “the largest and finest private collection of musical manuscripts in the world.”

The Spokane Register of Historic Places came into being in 1981 by an ordinance establishing an historic preservation region. “We do on the local level what the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation does on the state level,” Flinn said.

Being listed on the register offers property owners certain tax advantages as well as potentially higher sales values, Flinn said, although owners must sign a contract that any exterior work on their building or structure has to be approved by Flinn’s office, a contract that lasts into perpetuity.

Information about eligibility for the Spokane Register is available at www.historicspokane.org. Also at that Web site is an alphabetical listing of the current listed properties, including descriptions, history and pertinent details about them.