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Then and Now: Union Bus Depot

1958: Beyond the three-story auto garage at far left, Spokane’s Union Bus Depot glows with light from a “Greyhound” sign at 1125 W. Sprague Ave. A sign also advertises the Post House restaurant, a combination cafeteria and sit-down restaurant that became a fixture in hundreds of Greyhound stations across the nation. (Photo Archive/The Spokesman-Review)
1958: Beyond the three-story auto garage at far left, Spokane’s Union Bus Depot glows with light from a “Greyhound” sign at 1125 W. Sprague Ave. A sign also advertises the Post House restaurant, a combination cafeteria and sit-down restaurant that became a fixture in hundreds of Greyhound stations across the nation. (Photo Archive/The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo
By Jesse Tinsley jesset@spokesman.com(509) 459-5378

As transportation evolved from horseback and stagecoach to streetcars, regional electric trains and buses, the operators had to find a place for their passengers to wait for their ride.

Several local and regional bus lines filled the need for local and regional transportation. One of the busiest was the Auto Interurban Company, owned by Herbert S. Hawley. He brought together several smaller bus lines to organize the first bus depot in 1924 on the south side of Trent Avenue, now called Spokane Falls Boulevard, west of Howard Street. Three buildings were connected and space rented to food vendors, barbershops and convenience stores.

Bus traffic grew as passenger trains declined and private car ownership became common. Three bus lines, Auto Interurban, Overland Greyhound, and the Washington Motor Coach company formed the Spokane Union Bus Depot company and built a new bus station at 1125 W. Sprague Avenue, just west of some auto dealers and north of a former Episcopal school.

The Union Bus Depot, built at a cost of $500,000, was started in 1946 at Sprague Avenue and Jefferson Street. Because of wartime limits on private construction and post-war material shortages, the depot plans required a federal government review and there were wait times for some building supplies. But the two-story concrete main building opened in October 1947 and featured a large indoor waiting room with a ticket counter, a restaurant, a barber shop and a beauty shop.

Some of the local bus companies continued to pickup passengers on Trent Avenue for a few years.

The Post House restaurant, a Greyhound subsidiary company, in the new depot was one of hundreds in bus stations across the nation. The term “post house” was a reference to the restaurants at western frontier towns in the stagecoach era.

The bus station, which eventually was wholly owned by the Greyhound bus company, was taken out of service in 1994 and the terminal moved to the former Northern Pacific Railway depot at Riverside Avenue and Bernard Street. The remodeled depot was renamed the Spokane Intermodal Facility.

The former bus station was purchased by the Cowles Real Estate Company, which also owns The Spokesman-Review, and it has been used for parking and storage ever since.