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Then and Now: Shaw & Borden building

Sept. 7, 2020 Updated Mon., Sept. 7, 2020 at 9:51 a.m.

1970: Shaw & Borden Co., a printing and office equipment firm, was located at 325 W. Riverside Ave. from 1914 until the parent company, J.K. Gill of Portland, sold the three-story building and closed down the business in 1970. The building was built in 1901 for the Grote-Rankin company, which sold furniture and housewares. After Shaw & Borden closed in 1970, the building was mostly empty. It was torn down in 1974, and the land was turned into a parking lot. Shaw & Borden had been founded in 1890, shortly after the great fire of 1889. (The Spokesman-Review photo archive)

By Jesse Tinsley jesset@spokesman.com (509) 459-5378

John H. Shaw and Joseph A. Borden formed Shaw & Borden in 1890 in Spokane. Borden, from Indiana, had worked in a federal government printing office in Washington, D.C., attended Georgetown University and practiced law. Shaw was from Maine and had started, managed and edited newspapers in New Hampshire before heading to Spokane.

The business started as a simple printshop set up in two rooms in the Heath Building. They had a single printing press, described as an “alligator” type, where paper stock was fed into its gator-like jaws. Their aim was to serve businesses needing promotional materials, business forms and stationery.

One of their first clients was the firm of Comstock and Paterson, owners of the The Crescent department store. The store had survived the 1889 fire, and the owners ordered 500 advertising posters for which Shaw and Borden charged only $3.50. It was a low bid because they wanted the business. So the printers worked an entire day to get the posters printed and delivered by the end of the day. Comstock and Paterson were so pleased that they quickly ordered another 500 at the same price.

After more than 20 years at two other locations, Shaw & Borden moved into the Grote-Rankin building, a furniture and housewares store, at 325 W. Riverside Ave. in 1914. Grote-Rankin, which merged with Frank Culbertson’s Wonder Department Store, had moved to the new Welch Building.

Borden, who had left the firm in 1914, was active in the printing industry until died in 1927 at age 66. Shaw was at the head of the company when he died at his Spirit Lake, Idaho, cabin in 1931 at age 76.

Newer partners carried on with the business. Shaw & Borden would become a leading supplier of bank and office furniture, architects’ and engineers’ supplies, photographic supplies and safes and vaults.

The next generation of owners, Will J. Ortel and Walter J. Burns, sold Shaw & Borden in 1956 to J.K. Gill, one of the largest dealers of office furniture and equipment in the western states.

J.K. Gill was bought out in 1970 and Shaw & Borden was closed down that same year. The building was torn down in 1974.