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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Jesse Tinsley

Jesse Tinsley

Current Position: photojournalist

Jesse Tinsley joined The Spokesman-Review in 1989. He currently is a photojournalist in the Photo Department covering daily news and shoots drone photography.

Email
jesset@spokesman.com
Phone
(509) 459-5378

All Stories

News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Smith Funeral Home

Pioneer businessman Stephen M. Smith came to Spokane in 1889 after growing up in Pittsford, New York, where he went to the College of Embalming in New York City to learn the funeral business. When he got to Spokane, he started a funeral business, first as Smith & Luce Undertakers and Embalmers, then just Smith and Co. His first businesses were located in the Blalock and Bavaria buildings.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Eagle Block

A fire tore through downtown Spokane in August 1889 and destroyed virtually everything across 32 square blocks, including the four-story Eagle Block at Riverside Avenue and Stevens Street . A tenant, railroad builder Daniel Corbin grabbed business records while his chief engineer Edward J. Roberts scooped up drawings and surveys, barely escaping before the building was engulfed.

Then and Now: Sprague Way cutoff

The number of automobiles and commercial trucks in the United States almost doubled in the decade after World War II and Spokane saw its share of daily traffic jams in the postwar years. Eastbound traffic entered Spokane from the west on the Sunset Highway and flowed east onto Third Avenue. Eastbound traffic from the Spokane Valley came mostly on Sprague Avenue, which slowed in the business districts.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Early Spokane schools

A photo collage shows five of Spokane’s early schools around 1901 and each building reflects new acceptance of public education in a prosperous city with optimism about its future.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Consuelo Apartments

The Social Security Act of 1935 changed the care of older people and allowed entrepreneurial caregivers to make a living while doing it during the Great Depression.
News >  Washington

Then and Now: Spokane International Airport

Spokane is well-known for many examples of midcentury modern architecture and the creative minds that designed them. Midcentury is often characterized by utilitarian exposed concrete walls and beams framing curtains of windows.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Sweeny/Finucane House

Spokane’s city traffic planners proposed extending Stevens Street up over the South Hill bluff in 1959 for safer travel and to relieve congestion on Grand Boulevard. But a historic home was in the way.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Our Lady of Lourdes

As early as the 1830s, Catholic missionaries fanned out across the region to teach Christianity to the Native tribes long before Spokane’s founding. Many of those priests were from the Society of Jesus, called the Jesuits, a large religious order that emphasized evangelism, education, charity and humanitarian work.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Aircraft over Spokane

Fairchild Air Force Base has announced that its 2026 SkyFest air show will be June 6 to 7, showcasing current and historical aircraft. But since the first biplanes in the 1920s, Spokane skies have been a veritable airshow of military planes for almost a century.
News >  Washington

Then and Now: Fast Mail Train

The Great Northern Fast Mail train No. 27 came through Spokane every evening in the early 20th century. Its route from Chicago to the West Coast took more than 47 hours but was the fastest way to send a letter before air mail. The Railway Mail Service’s clerks sorted mail on trains as they sped across the vast plains of the Western states.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Linder’s Lodge

The rustic Bear Creek Lodge along North Mt. Spokane Park Drive, just outside the state park, was built in 1952 but closed in 2023 and sold to the park for a new headquarters building.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Santa Claus comes to town

Retail commerce and Santa Claus have been a part of Spokane holidays since the turn of the 20th century. The character of Santa entered American culture through the many drawings of illustrator Thomas Nast, dating back to the Civil War. The story best known as “The Night Before Christmas” filled out the lore of the beloved Christmas icon.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: The Ice Palace

Riverfront Park’s Ice Palace, which opened the day after Thanksgiving in 1977, had a 40-year run as a downtown winter attraction. Opening day included demonstrations by local figure skating clubs that were set to disco music. A new park mascot called Dudley, Dean of Dawgs, styled like Disneyland costumed characters, was introduced to the crowd.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Knickerbocker Apartments

The Knickerbocker Apartments at Fifth Avenue and Howard Street in Spokane were built in 1911 in the midst of the city’s great period of growth. Apartments and hotels were springing up to house the workers flooding into the city.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: The Progressive Party

In April 1916, 80 to 100 members of the Spokane County Progressive Party held their county convention and elected 22 delegates for the state convention in June. The progressives, also nicknamed the Bull Moose Party after former President Theodore Roosevelt, were an offshoot of the Republican Party.

Then and Now: Mearow and Hale buildings

There are four buildings on the south side of the 200 block of West Riverside Avenue that date back to 1905 to 1909. They are some of the few existing single-room-occupancy hotels that once filled old Spokane. More than 150 such hotels housed workers from 1895 to 1915, when the city’s population exploded, quadrupling to more than 100,000 people in 20 years.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: JCPenney’s Toyland

Spokane’s retail scene in the early 20th century featured stores like the Wonder, Palace and Culbertson-Grote-Rankin department stores which defined the modern shopping experience. Those stores were then sold or merged with Culbertson’s, Penneys or Bon Marché.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Joe Albi Stadium

The stadium that was later named for sports booster Joe Albi opened as Spokane Memorial Stadium in 1950. Intended for multiple uses, one of the first events was the Apple Cup between the Washington State Cougars and the Washington Huskies. It had been 40 years since the Apple Cup was played at a Spokane venue.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Britt’s

The popular discount stores of the early 20th century didn’t pop up overnight. Many startups and small chains either had merged or consolidated with bigger companies.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Sullivan Road Bridge

Getting roadways across rivers and railroads was always a challenge in Spokane. As residents spread through Spokane Valley, north-south arterials became critical.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Brunot Hall

The story of Brunot Hall is about the growth of Protestantism in the West and education of girls from well-to-do families in early Spokane.