Riverfront Park’s foundation laid by laundry company

It’s a story that’s been told many times in Spokane. The visionaries behind Expo ’74 saved the city, and recovered the central geography that made this spot in the river so appealing for so many people, from native fishermen to East Coast industrialists.

The story may be true, but it had a prelude.

From 1905 to 1973, the Crystal Laundry Company owned an entire island in the middle of town. It was called Crystal Island for all those years, and the laundry facilities sat on the eastern end.

In 1927, the island already in its fifth decade of supporting industry, its owners drew up an idea. The little island would shine.

“This island for so many years neglected, in fact despoiled, is about to be rehabilitated and once again come into its own,” wrote Aubrey L. White, the first president of the Spokane Park Board , in a Nov. 13, 1927, article.

Lawns, rock gardens, wandering paths and a fountain graced the island in a drawing. So did a huge parking lot. As White wrote, the island’s plan “has service to the public in mind and particularly service to the car owners.”

Crystal Laundry remained on the island through World War II and all the way up to Expo, when railroad tracks dominated the island.

Now, with the island’s most recent moniker of Canada Island changed to a Salish word meaning “salmon people,” the island is something closer to what it was 150 years ago. And there’s no parking lot.