Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

First Presbyterian Church was preparing for an event “planned and anticipated for 20 years”: its inaugural service in its new building at Fourth Avenue and Cedar Street.

“The new church is the most modern and one of the most spacious in the city,” reported the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

The auditorium had room for 1,000. The exterior was fashioned from Tenino sandstone with interior woodwork of “fumed oak.” The organ, of the “most modern construction,” cost $10,000. The rest of the building, excluding the organ, cost $130,000.

The opening service was scheduled to be presided over by the Rev. W.G. Craig of Chicago, with an elaborate musical program planned by choirmaster J.W. Mather.

The church had been founded in 1882 at Monroe Street and Riverside Avenue, and moved in 1890 to a site at Second Avenue and Jefferson Street.

The new 1910 church? It remains one of Spokane’s religious landmarks. Services are still held in the historic sanctuary.

Also on this date:

(From the Associated Press)

1919: Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing citizens the right to vote regardless of their gender, and sent it to the states for ratification.