Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Carnegie Corporation donated $70,000 to the Spokane Public Library, which meant that plans were underway to build three new branches instead of only two.

City Librarian George W. Fuller said that the board planned to build one new branch in Union Park, one in the Heath neighborhood at Mission Avenue and Standard Street, and a third on North Monroe Street.

Fuller said that they had previously been renting space in a store at Monroe and Cleveland Avenue and that high usage proved that the neighborhood was “entitled to the third building.”

From the opera beat: Spokane proved to be a good market for the Chicago Grand Opera’s spectacular touring production of “Thais.”

The Spokane receipts were “proportionately larger than at any place” the opera had played west of the Mississippi.

The Auditorium theater manager said he now planned to book several “equally meritorious productions next season.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1865: Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. … 1913: The first game was played at Ebbets Field, the newly built home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0.