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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Then and Now: Knickerbocker Apartments

1922: The Knickerbocker Apartments, built by businessman Graham B. Dennis in 1911 on land he bought in 1887, was one of the most luxurious multifamily residences in the city of Spokane, which Dennis intended to occupy himself. Architect Albert Held designed the three-story luxury apartment building faced in red brick and ornamented with off-white glazed terra cotta. Dennis had told the architect he wanted “the finest apartment house west of New York.” The building cost $200,000. (Photo courtesy of Mary Braden)
1922: The Knickerbocker Apartments, built by businessman Graham B. Dennis in 1911 on land he bought in 1887, was one of the most luxurious multifamily residences in the city of Spokane, which Dennis intended to occupy himself. Architect Albert Held designed the three-story luxury apartment building faced in red brick and ornamented with off-white glazed terra cotta. Dennis had told the architect he wanted “the finest apartment house west of New York.” The building cost $200,000. (Photo courtesy of Mary Braden)
By Jesse Tinsley jesset@spokesman.com(509) 459-5378

The Knickerbocker Apartments at Fifth Avenue and Howard Street in Spokane were built in 1911 in the midst of the city’s great period of growth. Apartments and hotels were springing up to house the workers flooding into the city.

Businessman Graham B. Dennis was born in London , in 1855, but raised in Cincinnati, Ohio , where he worked in newspapers and business. Seeking a change of careers and scenery, he moved to Spokane, which had a population of 1,200, in 1885 and began work in real estate and mining. He started the Spokane Miner newspaper, served on the city council and started a streetcar company. Dennis made profitable mining investments, sometimes by using money from investors back east.

In his heyday as an investor, Dennis projected his financial success by wearing a Prince Albert frock coat and a silk hat as he networked and built new businesses.

Using real estate he had purchased in 1887, Dennis wanted to build a luxury apartment house on the outskirts of downtown Spokane, a building where he planned to live. He turned to architect Albert Held, who designed many private homes, commercial buildings and warehouses and was one of the first to focus on designing luxury apartment houses for affluent Spokane newcomers. He designed the Amman and the San Marco apartments in 1904. He followed that with the Breslin Apartments in 1910, then the Knickerbocker. His work compares with other luxury apartments from that era, including the Kempis, Altadena, Gables and Cedars Apartments. Dennis told Held, who had come to Spokane in 1889 to rebuild the city after the great fire, that he wanted the “finest apartment house west of New York.” Held decorated the Knickerbocker in the Beaux Arts style. The building has 30 one- and two- bedroom apartments, fine wood trim, a large fireplace in the lobby and a welcoming courtyard entrance surrounded by fluted columns and an entablature with the building’s name above the door.

The building is on both the Spokane and the National Register of Historic Places

.

Dennis was 68 when he died in 1923.

The building was falling into disrepair as it approached a century in age, but extensive refurbishing was performed by recent owners Eric and Mary Braden, who took over the property in 2010. They sold the Knickerbocker in 2018.