East Spokane Antique Store Proprietor Pushes Recycling To The Limit

In a burned-out old tavern in East Spokane, a demonstration is under way to prove that, actually, you can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

What a dump this place was.

But an enterprising pair is convinced they can convert an empty shell at Sprague and Napa into a glittering showplace.

Undertaking the make-over are Roy E. McLeod, an 81-year-old antique dealer who needs a new home for his business of a quarter century, and Dan Overhauser, a young supplier of windows and doors who says, “I just love old buildings.”

Indeed, Overhauser collects old buildings. Whole buildings, including four in the Davenport Hotel district of downtown Spokane. Plus bits and pieces of architecture that once adorned buildings throughout the Inland Northwest.

Most of the buildings from which these embellishments were removed are long gone. Some were gutted and recycled for a different use.

The result that Overhauser and McLeod are out to achieve is nothing short of a shrine to historic structures. Incorporated into the design are memorabilia ranging from massive stone columns to itsy-bitsy ornamental doodads.

Guarding the entryway will be a pair of great bronze carriage-style lamps that Overhauser says were removed from the old Review Building when it was restored a dozen or more years ago. Indeed, they do look familiar.

In one room of the building, which began life as an earlyday bank and sheltered a succession of different businesses down through the years, a workman today is installing wainscoting stripped out of the downtown Nott-Atwater Building, designed by Spokane’s celebrated Kirtland Cutter.

The marble on the floor in another room came from a public building in Ephrata. A magnificent series of mirrored doors formerly graced a lower level of the Masonic Temple in downtown Spokane. And so it goes, room by room, cornice by cornice.

Everywhere there are decorative wood and metal columns from an earlier era, authentic ancient sunburst windows either already in place or roughed into the plans, stamped metal ceilings, intricate metalwork and magnificently carved baroque figures and scrolls in oak and mahogany.

As if that weren’t enough, a carver is busily creating still more replicas of Renaissance artworks in wood. An artisan from Seattle has been commissioned to execute a series of stained glass windows for the exterior.

The new-old building in the works is just a block from McLeod’s existing shop, another Overhauser conversion. McLeod’s Antiques, 2118 E. Sprague, occupies a former ice cream parlor hauled in from elsewhere in the neighborhood.

“This is a wonderful old Italian district,” says McLeod. Next door, a painted-over brownstone once housed “Rosauer’s Market,” the original store in today’s extensive supermarket chain.

Benny Adore, proprietor of Benny’s Antiques, the current occupant, proudly displays an ancient photo of the market. He and other neighbors recall when the Rosauer family still lived above the store.

Nearby, a little 1930s-era, art-deco, Safeway store that survived a succession of occupants is now is an economy furniture store.

But the old ice cream parlor that McLeod occupies today has been sold my Overhauser and will be leveled to make way for a parking lot, which renders the move to a new location imperative. “If I didn’t have this business,” says the 81-year-old McLeod, “I would get old.”

Convention planners scout Spokane

The Spokane Area Convention & Visitors Bureau played host over the weekend to a visiting group of convention and meeting planners who collectively represent about $5 million in business for the local economy.

“That’s if we landed every one of their meetings,” says convention sales director Mina Gokee. “Typically we’ll end up booking about 60 percent of them.

“This time, it was a very enthusiastic group that we had pre-qualified for this first of two familiarization tours this year,” said Gokee. “We’ll probably close a sale with a good 70 percent of the representatives who came this time.” Another tour group is scheduled in October.

Total spending by delegates to conventions and meetings this year in Spokane is projected to approach $60 million. The bureau has conventions and meetings booked through the year 2004. As of this date, these advance bookings have an estimated impact on the Spokane economy of more than $163 million.

Nasdaq lists Source Capital

Source Capital Corp. of Spokane common stock has begun trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the small-cap issues section. The trading symbol is SOCC.

“A Nasdaq listing has been a priority of the company for some time,” said D. Michael Jones, president and chief executive officer. “We feel confident this listing will be a positive step in improving trading volume and liquidity of our common stock.”

Source Capital is a commercial lender with about 1,400 shareholders.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes a notes column each Wednesday. If you have business items of regional interest for future columns, call 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review