50 years ago in Expo history: Location along Trent Avenue, now Spokane Falls Beaulevard, sees drop in homeless population due to World’s Fair

The Spokane Chronicle asked, “Did Expo ’74 wipe out Spokane’s Skid Road?”

The question had yet to be settled, but two things were certain, the Chronicle wrote.

First, Skid Road “shrunk rapidly during Expo and it is still shrinking.”

Second, “the homeless men, the winos and pensioners and transients are still there, even if in smaller numbers.”

Skid Road (sometimes called Skid Row) was roughly centered on the downtown blocks of Trent Avenue. Not only were many of the old hotels and boarding houses torn down for Expo, but also the street itself was revamped and renamed as Spokane Falls Boulevard.

Some of the mission workers who served the area said that Expo brought in a “different breed of homeless single men and some women.”

“This is the younger, so-called hippie type,” the Chronicle said. Many camped out at High Bridge Park, but some discovered the Skid Road missions as a place they could eat for free.

From 100 years ago: Here’s what Denton McBean, 18, said when asked if he was glad to be back at Lewis and Clark High School: “I’ll say I am!”

McBean had been suspended from school for a controversial reason: He was married.

McBean was a sophomore and a member of the football team. He was suspended on the grounds that a married student might “demoralize” other students.

McBean and his father appealed the school board’s decision, and it was reversed by the county school superintendent.

He hoped to play in the big football game against North Central High School. North Central had already indicated that it “would not protest.”