Then and Now: West Coast Fast Freight warehouse

In 1949, West Coast Fast Freight Lines of Los Angeles bought Spokane Pacific Lines for approximately $500,000. The local trucking outfit had used 20 trucks to make daily trips west to Portland and Seattle and east into Montana.

WCFFL had 300 trucks. The purchase had to be approved by the federal Interstate Commerce Commission. Local manager B.E. Turnpening said that the merger would result in faster freight service between Spokane and California.

Once the purchase was approved by the ICC, the company bought a 7-acre parcel between Third and Fifth avenues and Hatch and Garfield streets that same year. After extensive blasting, they began building a large warehouse facing Third Avenue.

The warehouse used an “across the dock” design, where smaller delivery trucks bring cargo in one side of the building and semi-trailers and tractors line up on the opposite side. Until the new building was ready, the company used the Spokane Pacific headquarters at Geiger Field. WCFFL bought six new Kenworth tractors for $95,000, plus additional trailers from Brown Trailer Inc.

The 120-by-576-foot building, partly built with trusses from the giant drill hall at Farragut Naval Training Station, opened in spring 1951.

At the time, West Coast also had major terminals in Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, Eugene, Seattle and Yakima, representing $5 million in investments.

During the period, many companies tried to dominate the the western states, including Consolidated Freightways and Roadway Express. West Coast sold out to Oakland-based Pacific Intermountain Express in 1953, and the transfer was complete in 1956.

The business was changing, and PIE built a new freight terminal at 4220 E. Broadway in 1962, leaving the Third Avenue property.

Inland Truck Rental, owned by Hertz, moved to the old warehouse on Third Avenue in 1966.

The U.S. Forest Service used the building for storage in 1968. Interstate 90 had taken the south half of the property.

Buchanan Chevrolet took over the large building in 1973. Buchanan became Freeway Chevrolet, but went out of business in the early 1980s.

Membership retailer Costco occupied the building in 1988 and stayed until 2000, then moved to stores on East Sprague and North Division. The cavernous building was used for boat and RV storage for several years and was the previous site of a large marijuana growing operation.