100 years ago in Spokane: A fire devastated businesses in Colfax, while Spokane’s needy looked to charity for Christmas

A fire destroyed numerous buildings and autos in Colfax, threatening the entire business district.

It appeared that the business district was saved by the time the Spokane Daily Chronicle went to press in the afternoon. But several businesses, including a machine shop, an auto mechanic’s garage and a tractor warehouse, were a total loss. Six autos were also destroyed.

The fire started at 10 a.m. in the vacant rooms above the garage. The cause of the fire was not yet known.

From the poverty beat: Spokane’s desperately needy residents applied for holiday assistance from the Good Fellows organization, Spokane’s main Christmas charity.

One mother, who was struggling to maintain a home on Third Avenue, said, “If I could only get some milk for my baby, it would mean so much to me. He is two years old and for two weeks he has been living on potatoes and stuff like that.”

Another woman on Third Avenue said, “My husband has pleurisy and rheumatism, but if he could get work, we could manage to get along. I have another baby in the Sacred Heart Hospital with pneumonia, and I walk out there three times a day to nurse him. I’m afraid I’m getting rheumatism from walking to the hospital in the morning.”

A family of seven lived in two rooms on East Riverside Avenue and were living on rice, rolled oats and potatoes.

“It hurts me to hear the children talking about Santa Claus, but they need clothing more than toys,” the mother said.

On this day

(From Associated Press)

1773: The Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest tea taxes.