Germond Block gets place in history
In the 1890s, people would travel from more than 100 miles away to knock back a shot of some of the world’s finest spirits at Eugene Germond’s saloon in downtown Spokane.
The Log Cabin Saloon was housed in the four-story Germond Block, one of 150 buildings erected in Spokane in the wake of the Great Fire of 1889.
Today, the 1890 Germond Block at Sprague Avenue and Lincoln Street is one of only 15 historic buildings that survived from the rebuilding of Spokane. It is joined by two others from the era, the Whitten Block and Miller Building at Sprague and Post Street.
On Monday, the City Council approved the Germond Block for listing on the Spokane Register of Historic Places. It also approved the Cascade Laundry Building at 1003 E. Trent Ave. for listing on the Spokane register.
The Germond Block is owned by Diamond Parking, whose owners hired consultant Jim Kolva to write the building’s historic nomination. Kolva said the Diamond family is planning restoration work on the upper-story apartments in the four-story building. The upper floors served as Spokane City Hall right after the building was completed.
“I think it’s pretty important to the city that we have those buildings from the 1890s,” Kolva said.
Germond was a French Swiss immigrant who knew something about fine spirits.
According to a story in The Spokesman-Review in 1935, “They carried the finest imported liquors from Europe. They handled Guinness stout in stone jugs. Other famous brands were carried. It was said people came 150 miles from British Columbia and Coeur d’Alene” to visit the saloon that also carried the first supply of Anheuser-Busch beer that sold for 5 cents a glass. Absinthe was dispensed there, too.
Germond was described in the article as “virile and chunky” with a black cropped beard pointed in the French fashion. Later, he cut the beard in favor of a waxed mustache.
What Germond didn’t understand was the depth of racial animosity in Spokane. He married a woman of color, Amita Claudia, and the two were subsequently ostracized, the 1935 story said.
“Gene’s friends snubbed him thereafter. He couldn’t understand their viewpoint. He wanted to be as friendly and genial as ever, but his old associates gave him the cold shoulder,” the story reported. “His bride had pride too. She was deeply resentful of the attitude of her husband’s friends. She locked her door on them all.”
Germond lost his holdings in the Panic of 1893, and his mental health deteriorated. He shot himself in the head, but survived the injury even though the bullet remained inside his skull. He spent time in an out of the insane asylum at Medical Lake, where he died in 1926.
His wife died at the county infirmary at Spangle in 1934, and in her possession was a gold locket that she wore throughout her life with Germond’s name and the name of his building inscribed on it.
The building was purchased in 1945 by the Travo brothers who ran a family-owned restaurant there. Frank Travo’s son, Joe Travo, sold the building and restaurant in 1993.
The building’s pedigree extends beyond its owners. It was designed by renowned Reid brothers, of San Francisco, who designed the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego in 1886 and the first steel frame building on the West Coast for the Portland Oregonian newspaper in 1892.