Spokane

A reporter for the Spokane Daily Chronicle walked through the Expo ’74 grounds and talked to the workers rushing to get the fair ready for the May 4 opening.

Big news arrived out of the White House: President Richard Nixon planned to participate in the Expo ’74 opening ceremony on May 4.

Landlords in Spokane will have to warn tenants 120 or 180 days in advance before raising rents if an ordinance proposed Monday is passed on April 29 by the City Council.

Edy Thogersen doesn’t shop fast fashion much; she’s retired and said she’s not one to get caught up in the trends of the week.

Spokane Chronicle business writer Frank Bartel wrote in January of 1973 that visitors to Expo ’74 “will get a very close look at the seamier side of Spokane.”

One persistent worry of Expo ’74’s organizers – that the gasoline shortage would curtail tourism – was put to rest.

With less than two weeks until opening day, work at the Expo ’74 site was reaching a “frantic pace.”

Washington Gov. Dan Evans sparked a controversy when he chided Expo ’74 officials for allowing construction of the Sheraton ITT Hotel to continue next to the Washington State Pavilion while Expo was underway.

Julian Bond, civil rights leader and Georgia state legislator, toured Expo ’74’s Afro-American Pavilion (sometimes called the Pan-African Pavilion) and called it “very impressive.”

Planting season is upon us! The nurseries are filling up and our local garden clubs and programs are gearing up for their annual plant sales. Here are the biggest ones in the Spokane area over the next two months.

Ava Cluever, 6, spun in a slow circle, watching her blue skirt swirl.

With Expo ’74’s opening a little more than two weeks away, work was proceeding full tilt.

Demand was high for tickets and hotel rooms during May, Expo ’74’s opening month.

Spokane’s most famous product, Bing Crosby, gave Expo ’74 some free publicity when he wrote an article for Ford Times magazine, a publication of the Ford Motor Co. with a circulation of nearly 8 million.

Spokane County commissioners hope their decision last week to buy an office building adjacent to their roughly nine-block county campus around the courthouse will settle many longtime space issues affecting multiple offices.

The Spokane County Republican Party has issued a correction: Ferry County Commissioner Brian Dansel, not Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle, received the party’s highest score for a candidate running to represent Eastern Washington in Congress.

The nine-story Welch Building, built by financier and railroad builder Patrick Welch at Howard Street and Main Avenue, opened as the home of the department store Culbertson, Grote-Rankin when it was built in 1914. The building took up a quarter of a city block and upper floors held many office tenants, including the Farm Credit Administration and Welch’s investment company.

Police in North Idaho were worried that Expo ’74 would create a range of law enforcement problems, including “increased highway traffic, increased drug traffic and increased misdemeanor complaints.”

When told to run the mile in gym class, kids often groan, drag their feet or seek an excuse to skip the dreaded activity. But offer them coupons and a free T-shirt, they come in droves to run the mile-long course at Junior Bloomsday, the much shorter version of the annual 7.5-mile race for kids in third to seventh grade.