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

From our archives, 100 years ago

Work on Spokane’s “Apple Way” was finally about to commence. The local Good Roads Association predicted that it would soon become “one of the best urban highways in the Pacific Northwest.”

Good road advocates had been agitating for the road for years. It would extend 15 miles, from Sprague Avenue at Spokane’s city limits all the way to the Idaho state line.

The “Apple Way” was so named because of all of the apple orchards in the Spokane Valley at the time. The name survives in a number of car dealerships – and even in lengthy stretches of the old route itself.

From the brothel beat: Spokane’s police commissioner said that the “social evil” – prostitution – was under control in Spokane and that “the moral status of the city is better than at any time since I have been in office.”

 Some businessmen wanted the old “restricted district” concept restored, in which brothels were allowed to operate, but only in one particular neighborhood.

The commissioner conceded that women were now “scattered over the city,” but he believed they were causing the police less trouble that way.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1981: Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain’s Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer.