100 years ago in Spokane: Nurses battling flu lauded; Washington Cracker Co. changes name

The Spokesman-Review honored the heroes in the battle against the Spanish flu: the nurses at the city’s emergency influenza hospital.

“They have worked often for 48 hours at a stretch,” said the paper. “… They have comforted the dying and helped the sick toward recovery. They have fought the fight as the men in the trenches fought when they were sleepy and hungry and tired.”

The paper warned that there were not nearly enough nurses to go around.

“Those who are there are in continual demand by patients, who are in no condition to understand the limitations under which the nurses labor and who call out unceasingly. Worn out, they struggle bravely on, trying to keep courage and spirits up for the task ahead.”

From the biscuit beat: The Washington Cracker Co., at Bernard Street and Pacific Avenue, changed its name to the Pacific Coast Biscuit Co.

“In changing its identity, the company assumes the name of the concern with which it has long been affiliated, and which operates large factories in Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento,” said the Spokane Daily Chronicle. “… The only change will be a specialized and concentrated campaign for the introduction of the ‘Snow Flake’ brand of white soda crackers to this territory.”

Yet the name Washington Cracker Company did not disappear forever. Today, the renovated building now hosts the Hogwash Whiskey Den, Inland Pacific Kitchen, and a Terrain art gallery and performing space – under its old name, the Washington Cracker Co.