Historic listing for Spokane parks to be focus of meeting

The public is invited to a meeting Feb. 5 on an effort to list Spokane parks on the National Register of Historic Places.

The meeting will be 6 p.m. at the Woodland Center in Finch Arboretum, 3404 W. Woodland Blvd.

The Spokane Parks and Recreation Department and the City/County Historic Landmarks Commission are teaming up to prepare a multiple property listing on the national register.

A consultant, Historic Research Associates, has been hired to undertake a detailed study for the nomination process.

The community meeting will provide information about the listing process and the historical context of the proposed listing.

Some of Spokane’s oldest parks were part of an early park plan by the renowned Olmsted Brothers, of Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1908.

A listing on the national register provides formal recognition of the historic value of Spokane’s parks as part of the history and architecture of the city.

The project is being funded through the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation and Spokane Preservation Advocates.

An earlier effort to complete a multiple-property listing for city parks stalled in 2013.

Spokane’s parks contain elements of the historic City Beautiful Movement and Progressive Era.

“A national register listing is an honor that signifies that a property is an important part of America’s cultural heritage and considered worthy of preservation,” Lynn Mandyke, chairwoman of the landmarks commission, said in a write-up about the process.