Keeping Garland Grand Garland Avenue Shops Add Charm To District, But Struggle To Survive Against Big-Box Retailers

Every morning for 41 years, Charlie Wash has arrived for work at Bud Brown’s Appliance on Garland Avenue. He clicks on the lights, turns the key in the front door and opens for business.

Refrigerators stand against the walls likes sturdy soldiers guarding stoves, dishwashers and microwave ovens. Since 1955, Garland homeowners have bought their first Frigidaire at Bud Brown’s. Most likely it was Charlie Wash who sold it to them.

Now it’s over.

Wash waged a determined battle, but he’s surrendering. Competition from superstores killed his shop, he says.

“People have been programmed to go to the ‘big box’ and get it,” he says, referring to the warehouse and department stores. “If they don’t come in, I can’t sell.”

Seeing Wash give up sends a shiver through store owners along the four-block strip.

“It sickens my heart to lose Charlie,” says Mary Copas, owner of Mrs. Cadiddlehopper’s kitchen shop across the street.

She looks past her collection of cookie cutters, gadgets, tea kettles and placemats, through the windows to the quiet sidewalk outside.

“A lot of us are just squeaking by,” she says.

The Garland’s struggle comes at a time when city planners are encouraging a return to self-sufficient, people-friendly neighborhoods that reduce the need for cars and long trips.

The district is an example of the unique character of that type of pre-World War II community.

“That area is a part of our past, but it will also be the hallmark of our future,” says Spokane Planning Director Charlie Dotson.

“If we can manage to hold on to that district for a short while more, we can build a community around it that will support it and give it economic life,” he says. “It’s impressive that the neighborhood has continued to support it as much as it has.”

For some it’s too late. Corky’s Drive In on the corner of Garland and Monroe is closed. So are the Novelty Nook, Britz Beads, a store specializing in Bonsai trees, a CD and tape store, and now Bud Brown’s.

Long-time shopkeepers in the district say the latest wave of “Out of Business” signs is just part of a natural, almost predictable cycle.

Others lay blame on competition from Costco, Shopko and - coming soon - Wal-Mart.

Copas says there are too many professional services, like dentists, lawyers and insurance agents, and not enough eye-catching store fronts to keep the district lively and interesting.

But those who remember Garland in the 1940s and 1950s when it bustled with activity say a big-name grocery and a well-stocked hardware store would spark business in the district and lure regular customers from the surrounding neighborhood.

Charlie Wash is hopeful that will happen.

“Garland is my home town,” says Wash, who is spending his last weeks personally delivering new appliances to customers.

He grew up in the Garland of the late 1930s and ‘40s. He remembers grocery stores on each block, one with plucked chickens and plump wieners hanging in the windows.

“This is where the action was,” he says.

Milk, cheese, eggs and butter came from the bottle-shaped Benewah dairy store, now a cafe.

“All the buttermilk you could drink for a nickel,” he remembers. And there was the bakery built like a Dutch windmill.

A 1933 Spokane city directory shows the four blocks of the central shopping district thick with stores to serve the surrounding neighborhood. The Spokanite Cleaners was exactly where it is today, with the same name. In addition to the grocery stores, there were three gas stations, three barbers, two shoe repair shops, a candy store and two bakeries. The Brown Derby Tavern was the Brown Derby Fountain and Lunch.

There was a plumber, a hardware store, a cabinetmaker, blacksmith and the radio repair shop. It was all anchored by the Wall Street lumberyard.

In years to come, competition bruised the district. In the late 1950s and mid-‘60s, NorthTown, then Shadle Center, opened on the North Side, stunting the Garland.

In the 1980s, Garland merchants organized and worked with the city to improve crumbling streets and sidewalks, plant trees and add lights.

But current Garland shopkeepers say they feel like neglected stepchildren when it comes to city support. Streets were plowed this winter, but the snow was piled onto sidewalks and over parking spaces. The city shakes its head at sandwich boards or park benches along the sidewalks.

Filling a niche

While some businesses struggle, others are thriving.

When the Garland Dollar Theatre re-opened nine years ago with an emphasis on family movies, and a hard-to-resist $1 admission, it brought new interest to the district.

“We helped bring back those who haven’t been on the Garland in a number of years,” says Paul Quam, the theatre’s general manager. “Having the theatre open makes a big difference.”

Ferguson’s Cafe, a fixture since 1946, bustles with regulars and those with a taste for nostalgia. Rocket Bakery, the new kid on the block, has been open a little more than a year, but already boasts devotees.

Ed Weber, who’s worked at Spokanite Cleaners for 42 years, has seen the business district wax and wane with the surrounding neighborhood.

“The older people have more dry cleaning, they go to the smaller restaurants, they are keeping us in business,” says Weber, who bought the 70-year-old business in 1970.

“Younger people jump in their cars and drive to Safeway or a fast food place on Division,” he says.

What’s happening in the district is, in part, just the natural overturn of a neighborhood. Families moved into the Garland in the 1940s and 1960s, aged, and moved away. Now the cycle begins again, as young families are lured to the neighborhood, looking for roomy affordable homes and a disappearing “Leave It To Beaver” community.

Rick Sailors, his wife Tamsin and their five young children bought a 1909 Garland home three years ago, attracted by the charming, mature neighborhood. The quaint business district figured into their decision.

“I found it enchanting,” says Rick Sailors. “We use it. We go to the movie theater, my wife shops for baby clothes, I’ve had stained glass work done at a shop there.

“I think this would be a great time for the business district to step up and create it’s own distinct niche.

“Maybe with some street fairs or festivals. The Garland Theater is such an anchor, maybe they could build theme weekends in the summer around movies there.” he says, brainstorming ideas. “So far they just haven’t been able to spark it and make it go.”

Yet there is something nostalgic and alluring about the district. Something that can’t be found at malls or what Charlie Wash calls the “big box.”

“Service,” says Wash. “People don’t know what it is anymore to get service from a store.”

Ed Weber remembers a Thanksgiving day years ago when his refrigerator broke. He called Wash at home. Wash came over and fixed it.

Holly Ann McConnell also understands service. She knows every bottle, box and tap shoe in her health food-dance store.

She is buying Wash’s building next to hers when he leaves. She says the investment shows her commitment in the future of the business district.

“Garland is an example of what a neighborhood once was, and what it can be again,” she says. “I’m willing to participate, and give it my best shot.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 photos (2 color)