100 years ago today: Business leaders oppose city zoning effort

Spokane was contemplating a new zoning ordinance – but nearly 40 of the city’s biggest banking and business leaders expressed their vehement opposition.

They signed a petition calling the zoning ordinance “arbitrary, impossible and impractical.”

“It is our belief that the city should be allowed to grow and expand along natural lines,” they said.

Many of them said they had acquired property with the intention of building businesses and the new ordinance would prevent them from doing so.

From the labor beat: Unionized cooks, waiters and waitresses of Spokane won an important concession: a six-day work week.

They would finally be allowed a day off. The union said it had secured agreements with most of the eating houses in town to allow the same wages, per hour, as before.

From the dance beat: Paid admission to Whitehead’s Palace dance hall on Thanksgiving totaled 4,115, making it “the largest crowd ever to attend a dance in Spokane.”

The hall was open from 2:15 p.m. to midnight and was packed nearly the entire time. Thousands danced to the strains of an eight-piece orchestra.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1789: Americans observed a day of thanksgiving set aside by President George Washington to mark the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.

2000: Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified George W. Bush the winner over Al Gore in the state’s presidential balloting by a 537-vote margin.