Panel Considers District Status For Millwood

Sat., Oct. 21, 2000

By Lorie Hutson lorieh@spokesman.com (509) 459-5446

The Millwood Historic District could be headed for the National Register of Historic Places by the end of next month.

The Washington State Advisory Council on Historic Preservation will hold a special conference call in late November to vote on whether to recommend the area for the national historic register.

It would become the first historic district in the Spokane Valley.

The council postponed action on the nomination earlier this month because of a legal glitch. The state Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation didn’t notify all the property owners in the proposed historic district about the council’s plan to consider the nomination at its Oct. 6 meeting, as required by law.

Nancy Compau, a Spokane historian who is a member of the state advisory council, said the preservation office is in the process of sending notices to property owners, who must have 30 days to comment on the matter.

The nomination was well received by the council and Compau said she thinks it would be a nice addition to the historic register.

“It’s a great nomination,” Compau said. “We toured the district, and everybody was very impressed with it. People liked the fact that it isn’t just all the big fancy homes.

“It’s unique because most of the homes were built for the people who worked with the (Inland Empire) paper company,” Compau said.

Bobbie Beese, who co-owns the Corner Door Cafe on Argonne Road, prepared the Millwood Historic District nomination. Beese and her brother, Greg Mott, began researching Millwood’s history in 1993. They put out a walking tour booklet in 1997.

The proposed historic district would include the older commercial buildings along Argonne Road in Millwood and the residential neighborhood west of there. It would be bounded by Liberty Avenue on the north, Euclid Avenue on the south, Argonne on the east and Sargent Road on the west. Some homes along the west side of Sargent and the north side of Liberty are also included.

At its Oct. 6 meeting, the state advisory council recommended placing the Rosebush House, which is inside the Millwood Historic District, on the national register individually.

If the Rosebush house is added to the National Register of Historic Places it will be only the second Spokane Valley home and one of just seven Valley sites recognized on the register.

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