Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane voters emphatically rejected a Spokane City Hall bond issue, which caused Spokane’s city government to become, effectively, homeless.

That’s because the city had already sold the old City Hall to the railroads, which would take possession in four months.

And the new City Hall? It was a giant, muddy hole in the ground.

A photo in the Spokane Daily Chronicle ran a picture of a pit at Wall Street and Front Avenue (now Spokane Falls Boulevard), with the headline, “New City Hall to Look Like This For Another Year.”

It would be at least that long before a bond issue could be put on the ballot again. Work had begun on the new site several months earlier, with the idea that the bond money would finish it.

Mayor Hindley sounded stunned by the result.

“I have absolutely nothing to say about the defeat of the bonds,” said a downcast Hindley.

City commissioners scrambled to come up with a plan. Among the options: talking the railroads into a delay; moving city departments into various downtown buildings; and raising money for the new City Hall through regular taxation.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1889: Montana became the 41st state.