Then and Now: Shopping center site once home to colleges

Spokane is rightly well-known for its elite universities, Gonzaga and Whitworth. Both have endured for more than a century. But other Spokane colleges weren’t as fortunate.

The Norwegian Lutheran Church opened Spokane College in 1906 on 29th Avenue near Grand Boulevard. The city of Spokane donated the land. Despite support from the Lutherans, the school ran into money troubles.

Within five years, school officials were asking the city government for help, offering to deed the building and grounds back to the city. Highly touted faculty members slowly slipped away, sometimes to Gonzaga or Whitworth. A variety of subjects were added to attract students, including millinery arts, where students can learn to construct “hats in the latest styles” and a domestic science department that offered classes in “mothercraft” and “housewives’ work.”

The school closed in 1929. Faculty associated with the Christian Church denomination started Spokane Bible College, later Spokane University, in 1913 at Ninth Avenue and Herald Road. The school was intended to train ministers, but also to establish a full liberal arts curriculum. The administration also struggled to keep the doors open and eventually folded in 1933. The former campus was known as University Place and lent its name to University High School, which was built there in 1960. One former university building was converted into a nursing home after World War II and is still part of the Sunshine Gardens nursing home. The old U-Hi campus is occupied by Valley Christian School.

After the university dissolved, some faculty members formed Spokane Junior College, with offerings similar to today’s community colleges. It moved to the former Spokane College building in 1935. Facing decreased wartime enrollment, that school shut down in 1942. The former Spokane College building became apartments until it was torn down in 1969 to make way for Manito Shopping Center.