Saving Lewis And Clark High Would Be Landmark Win

I’d like to take you on a tour through the majestic former home of Kirtland Cutter, Spokane’s world-renowned architect who designed the Davenport Hotel.

Oops. Can’t do that. Cutter’s elegant Swiss chalet on West Seventh was put to the wrecking ball 25 years ago so some developer could build a bank of cheesy cube apartments.

Let’s instead wander over to Browne’s Addition to admire the gorgeous 28-room, brick Tudor mansion once owned by the late tycoon Robert Strahorn.

Sorry again. That home, another Cutter masterpiece, was leveled in 1974 to create - get this - a museum parking lot.

Oh, well, we can at least drive to 521 W. Fourth and appreciate this Spokane landmark: Lewis and Clark High School.

LC still stands. For now.

Who can predict what will happen to it after Feb. 3?

On that day, voters will be asked to determine the future of this grand building once considered the most state-of-the-art high school west of the Mississippi.

That was, however, 86 years ago. Though still stately on the outside, LC’s 1911 innards are cracked and warped and generally shabby.

The water tastes bad. Freeway fumes and noise filter in. There aren’t enough electrical outlets. Pipes drip and rattle. The radiators will roast you one day and freeze you the next.

After a three-year study of all the options, School District 81 has proposed an ambitious $41 million LC make-over. If passed, Spokane’s oldest high school finally will have all the modern bells and whistles without sacrificing its marble floors, oak trim and historic luster.

This may be the community’s last, best chance to save LC.

Lewis and Clark is as important to Spokane as the Riverfront Park Clock Tower, the Patsy Clark mansion or the Davenport Hotel. It is one of our immediately recognizable symbols.

This is coming from a Ferris grad, but LC helps define our city. It gives us tradition. It adds a touch of class.

Giving LC new life “is a legacy,” says Laurie Dolan, a District 81 administrator. “This is about history. This is about heart.”

Dolan wore a black-and-orange Tiger sweater at Tuesday night’s “Save LC” rally. The educator’s interest is not merely professional, but generational.

She has a son and a daughter who attend LC. Her mother, Spokane Hutchison, was a legendary and beloved English teacher who taught at LC for 24 years.

“I was raised in this building,” says Dolan, valedictorian of LC’s Class of 1970. “From about age 4 I spent more time here than home.”

But Dolan and other District 81 officials are scared to death about their big bond and levy election. They should be.

First, they must overcome Spokane’s Goober Factor. That’s my name for naysayers who continually try to club to death any attempt at progress or culture. There are no good ideas to these people.

Goobers voted against funding Expo ‘74. They nailed a proposed science center. They rejected a new coliseum until the city finally prevailed.

And on and on.

The cultural importance of restoring an 86-year-old Gothic-Tudor high school will be lost, I fear, on these shortsighted tightwads who consider Sheetrock and Spackle the apex of craftsmanship.

Even more formidable than the Goober Factor, though, are the No-Shows.

Here’s where it gets hairy: The district must win a 60 percent “yes” vote. But the percentage is meaningless unless 25,920 voters go to the polls. That’s the magic number needed to validate this election.

Convincing nearly 26,000 voters to turn out for a school issue in dreary February may not be impossible, but it’s a longer shot than a Broncos Super Bowl win.

I hope I’m wrong. It would be a shameful blunder if Lewis and Clark joins the sad list of great landmarks Spokane foolishly let slip away.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos