Business owner keeps library’s history alive

Marsha Naegeli is a woman who knows how to make a statement.

The owner of Naegeli Reporting at 25 S. Altamont St., Naegeli has turned east Spokane’s former branch library into an elegant office space that goes way beyond its original Spartan look.

The brick landmark near Interstate 90 stands as a reminder of the proud history of this working-class neighborhood.

“I love yesteryear, the grandeur of yesterday,” Naegeli said in an interview via a teleconference hookup inside the branch office.

Naegeli, of Portland, bought the building in 2006 and spent $300,000 to renovate and restore it. Much of the work was done on the interior where richly colored woodwork and walls offer an Italian Renaissance style complemented by dramatic light fixtures, artwork and other fine furnishings. Together, the effect is elegant.

Built in 1913, the library was the second of four Spokane libraries funded through the philanthropy of industrialist Andrew Carnegie. The East Side Carnegie was used by the city until 1979, when the branch was moved to the East Central Community Center. The building was turned into office space. The neoclassical-influenced structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and the Spokane Register of Historic Places in 2004.

“It had the bones,” Naegeli said. “We had that vision.”

“There’s not a thing in there that I didn’t pick out,” she said.

Naegeli, a former Mrs. Oregon, is based in Portland and operates branches in Seattle and Boise as well as Spokane. She provides work for about 120 people, including 60 court reporters who work on contract. One of the company’s largest cases was the negligence lawsuit brought earlier this decade against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane for sexual abuse by priests.

She started the business out of her Portland home in 1981 and began providing services in Spokane in 1995.

In addition to offering court reporting services to law firms, Naegeli’s company also offers space for private teleconferencing.

Carol Weavil, who works in client relations for Naegeli in Spokane and managed the restoration, said that the elegant surroundings weren’t necessarily intended to impress clients. Rather, Naegeli wants her employees working in a pleasant and inspiring place.

Naegeli sought to purchase the building as early as 2003, but lost in a sales competition at the time. She purchased the building last September when it went up for sale again. “I knew we were supposed to have this building,” she said.

According to a historic nomination prepared by Linda Yeomans of Spokane, the branch library was designed by architect Albert Held and opened to the public on April 4, 1914, with a ceremony that included violin solos and meditations. Carnegie was credited with providing $17,500 for the cost of construction and furnishings. The library was stocked with 6,000 volumes.

When the city sold the building in 1981 to investors Jim and Jan Frank and Richard and Nancy Mason, the warranty deed included an architectural façade easement to protect its original design, Yeomans said.

In keeping with its historical character, Naegeli has decorated each of its main rooms with original presidential documents and named the rooms after them. For example, the Ford Room has an original pardon of President Nixon signed by President Ford, Weavil said. The John Q. Adams Room has an original land-grant document signed by Adams, she said.

“We’re very proud of this building,” Weavil said. “I call it one of my other children.”

Naegeli said she intends to remain in Spokane to help see the building into its second century of existence. “We look forward to being in Spokane a very long time,” she said.