Pickets: Save the Rookery block

Historic preservation advocates picketed at lunchtime Monday in front of the Rookery block downtown in a last-ditch effort to prevent its destruction.

The group was hoping to persuade owner Wendell Reugh to sell three historic buildings on Howard Street and Riverside Avenue rather than demolish them to make way for a surface parking lot.

About 40 members of Spokane Preservation Advocates, Washington State University architecture students and other Spokane residents chanted, “Wendell Reugh, shame on you.” They carried signs with messages like “Don’t Reugh’n Downtown,” “Preservation Equals Jobs” and “Reugh Could be Worthy,” referring to Walt Worthy, who restored Spokane’s historic Davenport Hotel.

The three buildings in question – the Rookery Building, the Mohawk Building and the Merton Building – are all eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

Of the three, the art deco Rookery Building, built in 1934, is probably the best-known. The 1915 Mohawk was built in the Chicago School style, and the Merton Building, built in 1890, is the oldest intact building in downtown Spokane.

“We’re running out of time,” said Matt Cohen, advocacy director for Spokane Preservation Advocates.

Several other neighboring structures without historical significance have already been torn down, but there is no schedule for when Reugh might tear down the remaining three.

Reugh has been unwilling to budge on his $4.5 million asking price, and interested developers say the properties aren’t worth that. But the preservation group says the buildings are priceless pieces of Spokane’s architectural history.

“Wendell Reugh owns these buildings, but he doesn’t own our heritage,” said Cohen.

But the buildings have fallen into disrepair over the past two decades. The few remaining tenants were told to leave earlier this year. Now only pigeons remain, flying in and out of the upper-floor windows of the Merton Building.

The protest generated some supportive honks and curiosity from pedestrians.

“Did you ever think these buildings would be too much to keep up? Knock it down for more parking,” shouted a passing motorist out his window.

“No. It wouldn’t be better. There’s plenty of parking downtown,” answered Cohen.

Downtown resident Gary Pollard said that he worries that tearing down the buildings will not only damage the city’s historic legacy, but also eliminate the possibility of economic development that could be spurred by rehabilitating the structures.

A new parking lot might attract more crime, Pollard added.

“Putting in a parking lot would be a blight on the city’s core,” he said.

Reugh and his property manager, Steve Gill, were unavailable Monday to comment on the protest.

In response to the Rookery block’s perilous position, the Spokane City Council has been working on new procedures for downtown demolition permits requiring that the property owner have a plan in place for constructing new buildings before a demolition permit for the old structures will be issued. It would prevent buildings from being torn down and replaced with parking lots, said Council President Dennis Hession.

But it won’t make a difference in this situation because it’s not a retroactive change.

“He has a demolition permit,” said Hession of Reugh. “He could tear them down tomorrow if he wanted to.”