The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
52°F
Current Conditions
Clear sky
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now
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: Volkswagen dealerships in Spokane

It took some visionary car dealers to bring a tiny air-cooled four-cylinder German car to Spokane. The round-topped two-door was simply called the Type 1 and the panel van, introduced in 1950, was called the Type 2.

Then and Now: Women’s wear in Spokane

The prosperity of early Spokane led to more leisure time at the turn of the 20th century in the city. Shopping and fashion became part of modern life in a city founded on mining, manufacturing, agriculture and railroads.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: The Lincoln Building

In the depths of the Great Depression, the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932 offered federal underwriting and direct loans to small banks called savings and loan associations. Sometimes called thrifts or mutual savings banks, many popped up around the country.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Prince Hall Masonic Temple

The two-story building at 2702 E. Fifth Ave. in Spokane was built in 1909 and served as a store and a pharmacy. When the last store closed in 1952, the building was briefly used as a church.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Lilac Festival Parade

Early white settlers planted Spokane’s first lilac bushes, which thrived in Eastern Washington’s dry environment. In 1912, Spokane Parks Director John W. Duncan planted more than 100 lilacs in Manito Park and many home gardeners followed suit.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Ridpath Hotel fire

The Ridpath Hotel was gutted by a nighttime fire Feb. 28, 1950. The Spokesman-Review called it one of the worst fires in Spokane’s history, but the 200 guests escaped and no one was injured.
News >  Spokane

Then and Now: Freedom Train

Caught between the victory of World War II and the specter of communism darkening the horizon, a group of people from advertising and business proposed a rolling exhibit about American history called the Freedom Train, calling it “a campaign to sell America to Americans.”
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.