Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Whitworth College agreed to move from Tacoma to Spokane – provided that Spokane would toss in a cash subsidy.

The Presbyterian college had been seeking a new location for the past year since it was finding the Tacoma college market too crowded. The College of Puget Sound and the Pacific Lutheran Academy were also in the Tacoma area.

Meanwhile, Spokane – or more specifically Spokane tycoon Jay P. Graves – had been trying to lure a college. Graves realized that a college would enhance land values in his Country Homes Addition, operated by his Home Development Co. So he offered to donate land in this North Spokane development.

The college’s board of trustees accepted the offer, but on one condition – that Spokane would kick in some cash, said to be $70,000, to help build the new school.

Apparently, some kind of financial agreement was eventually made, because by September 1914, Whitworth College was operating out of two large new brick buildings on its new Spokane campus.

Whitworth College thrived on its Spokane campus and eventually evolved into what it is today: Whitworth University.