Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Gov. Ernest Lister traveled to Cheney and unveiled an architect’s drawing of the grand new Cheney Normal School building.

 The Spokesman-Review said Lister was greeted by the town band and the visit turned into “a love feast.”

The governor declared that he would “use his best efforts in seeing that the school is rebuilt rapidly and as good and permanent as fire-proof construction permits.”

The latter was especially important, since the new building would replace one that burned to the ground in 1912.

The college had been using temporary quarters since then.

The proposed new building was 262 feet wide and three stories tall. It was designed by well-known Spokane architect Julius A. Zittel.

The resulting building was finished in 1915 and later named Showalter Hall.

It remains the centerpiece of the campus of Eastern Washington University, which evolved from Cheney Normal School.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1961: Some 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to topple Fidel Castro, whose forces crushed the incursion by the third day.