Mother’s Day tour comes with a view

This year’s Mother’s Day tour includes two of the finest homes in Spokane in one of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods.

And what a view.

The annual fundraiser for the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture this coming Saturday and Sunday will feature the home of the late Myrtle Woldson, one of the great benefactors in Spokane history.

The home at 526 W. Sumner Ave. – known as the Matthews-Woldson House – commands a bird’s-eye view of the city from its second floor rooms where Woldson kept an eye on the city and her beloved Gonzaga University in the distance.

“I thought the world of her,” said Donald C. Pearson, who bought the home after Woldson died in 2014 at the age of 104.

“Miss Woldson was truly an outstanding woman,” he said.

Pearson, who lives at the Leuthold-Brown House, 506 W. Sumner Ave., is opening his home to the tour as well.

Pearson’s home, built in 1925, was formerly occupied Edna Mae Brown, who was featured for years in The Spokesman-Review as Dorothy Dean, a food columnist and home economist.

The Matthews-Woldson House was built in 1916, which makes it a century old this year.

The exterior is Tudor Revival in style with half-timbering trim on the upper floors along with numerous other decorative features such as a prominent window flower box above the front porch.

It was originally built for real estate developer C.L. Matthews and his wife, Margaret.

Myrtle Woldson’s parents, Martin and Edwidge Woldson, purchased the home in 1943 and converted the interior to a Colonial Revival style with painted woodwork.

The house has two Woldson-remodeled kitchens that reflect the period when the remodels occurred. One is tiled in seafoam green. The other is tiled in yellow. Both have what are now vintage midcentury built-in devices such as an Ansley Paneltone radio.

On the north side of the home, they created a formal French-style garden that is backed by a pair of hedges. A secret garden is found among the foliage.

Pearson said that Woldson had a keen eye for detail, and she would call out to her gardeners with a bullhorn from her second-story window giving them directions to make sure the top of the hedge was trimmed perfectly.

“She always used to say you wanted the hedge tall enough so you don’t see the asphalt (on Cliff Drive),” Pearson said.

The formal flower beds were planted each year with geraniums, zinnias and baby’s breath.

Pearson said he bought the home to preserve Woldson’s memory. He has furnished it with Persian carpets, hand-carved furniture and art glass objects, among other items, many of which were collected over the years by his mother.

Pearson is from the family of Pearson Packaging Co., now known as Pearson Packaging Systems in Airway Heights.

Over the years, Woldson contributed to numerous Spokane projects, including the renovation of the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, which was completed in 2007 and renamed in honor of her father, who died in 1958 at age 94 after a career in railroad construction and investing.

Edwidge Woldson died in 1966.

Myrtle Woldson also funded the restoration of the Moore-Turner Heritage Gardens in 2006, located on the hillside just north of her home. The city park that includes the gardens was renamed Edwidge Woldson Park.

Woldson was a businesswoman in her own right, making strategic purchases of real estate, including three parcels of land in the waterfront area of downtown Seattle.

When she died, she bequeathed her estate to Gonzaga University for a $30 million performing arts center and a $25 million scholarship endowment.

She had made other gifts to GU over the years, including support for the scholarships, athletics and the Jundt Art Museum Endowment, according to GU.

Her home was furnished with two pianos, which she played.

The two homes on this year’s tour are part of the Marycliff-Cliff Park National Register Historic District.

Whitehouse & Price designed the Leuthold-Brown House.

The Matthews-Woldson House was designed by renowned architect Albert Held.

In addition to the homes that are open for the tour, the tour brochure provides directions for a walking tour of the neighborhood and information about each of the properties along with background on the development of the area.