Crescent memories (Part 5): Readers share memories of the downtown department store

In October, The Spokesman-Review wrote about how “The Strange Beautiful” author Carla Crujido is seeking stories from the Crescent and is calling on readers to submit their tales of the shopping mecca.

And boy did readers respond. Nearly 50 subscribers wrote or emailed letters sharing their favorite and most interesting memories.

Beginning Dec. 7, The Spokesman-Review printed a handful of these Crescent letters so that the entire city can share this history. This article is the final installment.

‘Crescent Child’

This story is from the memory of an old retired man covering 70 years, from 1955 to 2025.

As a child growing up in Spokane, I grew up as a “Crescent Child.”

As a small child of 5 or 6, I remember every Thanksgiving, my entire family would head down to the Crescent right after dinner to see the new Christmas windows for the year.

As I grew up my dad, Bill Moore was hired as a buyer for major appliances and electronics at the Crescent: New stereos and colored TVs were hot!

Growing older, my girlfriend and future wife was hired to work at the lunch counter near the clock at the Crescent while going to college.

Back in those days you always dressed up to shop at the Crescent, not shopping in torn jeans or sweats like you see today.

My dad passed away in 1973. After his passing the personnel director at the Crescent, Mrs. Moss called mom and asked what she was doing. She was taking care of our young son mornings as we were still going to Eastern. She said she had a prefect job for mom. Mom met with Mrs. Moss and became a model in the fur department. She liked how mom always looked her hair was always styled nicely and wore mostly clothes from the Crescent . Her hair was a collection of expensive wigs that were styled one a week so they were always ready to wear. Mom worked evenings and till close on Friday and Saturday nights. She enjoyed her job modeling furs for gentlemen who were shopping for expensive gifts for their “special” others!

After a few months, mom got engaged to a wonderful Christian man that was a widower . Mom and his wife had taught Sunday school together when their son and I were both in elementary school. Wayne did not want a working wife and provided well for her and was a wonderful grandpa for my children and as a “dad” to me.

When the Crescent added a floral department , one of our dearest friends, Susan Potabes, ran it. Susan is now retired and living in her adopted home: Maui, Hawaii.

Our lives change over time but, the Crescent was always a beacon of excellence in Spokane and for our family.

My life changed and I met a young man that had worked in the men’s suit department at the Crescent. His name was Dennis Borton and was remembered by many as a friend. Over the years he became my husband, we spent 21 wonderful years together till his death in January . In the years after working at the Crescent, Dennis moved to Seattle and became the patient relations director for Virginia Mason Hospital. He remained in Seattle until he moved back to Lewiston to care for his ailing mother. After her death is when this “Child of the Crescent” met him.

Over the years, my brother-in-law became the display artist for the Crescent. The decor of the Crescent had always intrigued me as a graphic artist. When my son was in high school, he was hired to help do display at the Crescent including putting together the same Christmas window displays that had entertained me as a child!

I am now a retired teacher from the Mead School District. After teaching for 49 years, COVID made me retire because by then I was privileged to have become Dennis’ full-time caregiver and could not afford to bring any germs home to him. I have now become the designer for the Spokane Lilac Festival designing their royalty parade floats for over 50 years.

The Crescent may be gone but is still in my heart and my home ; I still have a few pieces of furniture from the Crescent. I learned to love antiques from my mother. In my collection of antiques, I have a mint plate from the Apple Tree Grill at the Crescent as well as a bronze casting from a corner of the Crescent Building. I have books and clippings that were special to me and my mom.

This is how I grew up as a “Crescent Child.”

–Mike Moore, Spokane

Heater still running

The following are just a few of my favorite memories of my many visits to the Crescent department store:

• Modeling as a preteen in the Tea Room

• Having delicious lunches in the Men’s Grill

• Of course the wonderful store window decorations at Christmas!

I still own a powerful tower heater that was used in one of their departments and went up for sale when they were closing.

I could go on!

–Nicki Boures, Spokane

‘A magical world away from home’

In the early 1970s, my sister Clare and I together had fives children in grades 1, 2, 3 and 4. She lived in Spokane Valley and I lived in Cheney. Clare’s husband was a district manager for Texaco and mine was the assistant registrar at Eastern Washington University. We were both full-time moms who mostly kept ourselves busy at home.

We did have one amazing outing (maybe two), however. We drove into town, parked in the Parkade, and met at the little lunch cafe on the main floor of the Crescent, near the clock. Even sitting on the stools at the lunch counter was special. We ordered their cheesecake, the best in the world, and the coffee in pretty cups. We totally basked in the ambiance of the Crescent, the reigning queen of downtown Spokane retail. The smell of the new merchandise, the bustle of shoppers, the high ceilings and the beautifully dressed mannequins – a magical world away from home. It was absolutely delightful. Wigs were popular then, and we tried on wigs upstairs – all colors! What fun! I tried on a platinum gray one, and Clare said, “You would look so good with gray hair!” Fast-forward 30 or 40 years, and I had solid platinum gray hair, but since that day, I had sort of been looking forward to it.

We didn’t buy much at the Crescent, but we would always walk through and enjoy the elegance.

At Christmas time every year, my husband and I with our two girls would look forward to coming to the Crescent to stand outside and watch the animated Christmas displays in the windows. They were different each year, and always a special part of our Christmas tradition.

P.S. My sister, her husband and our younger daughter have passed away, but my fond memories of the Crescent are alive and very dear.

–Jeannette Liljegren

The ‘uptown store’

In 1961, I would have been 6 years old, my brother 5 years old and my sister 2 years old. I don’t remember the visit specifically but my mom would have taken us. We did go downtown to the Crescent during Christmas time to see the windows.

My mom was a nursing student at Sacred Heart Hospital and graduated in 1954. In an interview about her life in 2014, she stated that when the nursing students would go downtown she only had $5 to spend. “The Crescent was the uptown store. That was where the people with money went there; we didn’t go there.”

–Cherie (Poston) Foss

Waitress reminisces

As a lifelong Spokane resident, my memories of the Crescent are cherished and include time with relatives who have departed.

My earliest memories are of the yearly Christmas photos on Santa’s lap, breakfast with Santa in the Apple Tree room, and looking at the magical Christmas window displays.

My younger sister loathed the warm-up magician at the annual breakfast with Santa. She viewed him as a major impediment to time with Santa and the Cinnamon Bear.

I can still hear her saying, “Magic is stupid and fake. I want to see Santa and the Cinnamon Bear!”

I recall shopping trips with my beloved grandmother, mother and aunts all in search of the “perfect outfit” for a special occasion, or a special gift for a wedding. The signature white gift boxes with green lettering were wrapped by elegantly dressed shop ladies in the gift-wrapping department.

Shopping was always a reason to have lunch in the elegant Apple Tree room on the sixth floor. I recall crisp white tablecloths and sitting up straight while using my best manners.

The store displays were mesmerizing and the ride on the escalator or elevator was aways a thrill. I recall the amazing candy section on the first floor with glass jars and scoops. It was a Willy Wonka dream for children.

I reveled in the splendor of the fashionable ladies in the cosmetics and fragrance departments on the first floor. My grandmother always went to the Estée Lauder counter for lipstick and Youth Dew fragrance. I wanted to be one of those ladies when I grew up. It seemed like everything was pretty and smelled so nice. Nothing bad could ever happen in such a glamorous and scented place. I knew this was the job to have when I grew up.

And then when I turned 15 and a half, it was time. (I was certain my destiny had arrived.) My mother had enrolled me in driver’s ed class, and she also informed me I was to have a job that she had arranged with a friend at the Crescent. “If I was to become a driver,” mom continued, “she would provide me with a car and I would need to pay for gas, keep up my good grades for auto insurance, etc.”

I could barely listen. “Just tell me that I’d be working in the cosmetics department already.” I kept thinking.

Imagine my dismay when mom informed me that my new job at the Crescent was to be a waitress in the Under the Clock café. Ugh!

I recall going to the human resources office, and completing lots of boring paperwork. The only thing I liked was hearing about an employee discount. I was issued the ugliest starched waitress uniform and apron I had ever seen. I was given a tour of the employees’ locker room, issued a locker, and shown where to deposit uniforms for cleaning.

Despite my initial disappointment, I grew to love my time as a waitress, and the fun gang I worked with:

• Irene, Under the Clock manager
• Vicky, waitress, fellow Gonzaga Prep student
• George, cook
• Rex, cook, Lewis and Clark Student and basketball star
• Elizabeth, waitress
• Tammi, waitress, fellow Gonzaga Prep student

I learned what a conveyor belt for dishes was, how to take and place orders on a spinning metal ring, what a chocolate soda tasted like and so much more…

Coffee cups must be regularly refilled. (Good tips depended on this!)

Ashtrays must be extinguished and emptied regularly.

Always know what the rotating special of the day is! (A half sandwich, cup of soup and slice of pie)

A Trio Salad order (three scoops of salad, chicken, tuna and a jello mold served on a lettuce bed with garnish) was something to pay extra attention to. These ladies were good tippers!

Earning tips was the best. Minimum wage in 1981 was $3.35 per hour. Tips were not taxed, and yours to keep. I always had bus money – which later turned into gas money, clothes purchased on sale, plus the additional employee discount, and concert tickets.

My biggest purchase was made on lay away. The flared bell -bottom jeans of the 1970s had given way to new wave music and straight-legged jeans. I saved for several weeks to purchase a pair of straight -legged Vidal Sassson black denim jeans. Total cost $80 after employee discount – ouch! But oh, they were worth it. I was the only girl at Gonzaga Prep with these fashionable jeans.

I had cleverly purchased black denim.

At that time, jeans were only permitted at Prep on Fridays. I was certain mine would be undetected.

Enter Mike Maggart, vice principal at Gonzaga Prep. He is characteristically the doppelganger of the principal in “The Breakfast Club” film, but existed years before the movie was made. I often wonder if John Hughes secretly did attend Gonzaga Prep and modeled the character after Mr. Maggart.

Mr. Maggart spent hours walking the halls looking for any minor dress code violation to justify his job. He noticed my jeans, and I was summoned to his office.

At that time, violations of the dress code were typically resolved with an after-school detention called JUG. (Justice Under God)

JUG typically involved menial labor such as cleaning or gardening tasks. Prep until 1978 had been an all-boys school and this archaic program likely existed as the Jesuits must have found it impossible to get high school boys to sit still in detention and thought it best to harness their energy into productive tasks.

I knew that despite my flagrant violation of the jeans policy there was no way my mother, who had two master’s degrees and a law degree, was going to have me do JUG. I told Mike Maggart this and his reply was, “We’ll see…”

I still recall hearing my strong feminist mother’s voice over the phone as Mr. Maggart held it far from his ear.

“Well, Mr. Maggart, if my daughter has broken a rule, she should have a logical consequence. I am not paying $1,000 a month to have her learn to clean or garden. You may assign her library detention with extra school work.”

Mr. Maggart was bright red and hung up the phone. He said to me, “You have after-school detention.” I smiled and said, “Yep, but I’m not doing JUG!” I am slightly, but not too ashamed to tell that story.

I worked at the Under the Clock restaurant for nearly three years, and graduated from Gonzaga Prep in 1983. I then went to college. The Crescent became Frederick and Nelson in 1988 and eventually closed in 1992.

It will always be the Crescent to me.

–Shannon Hughes

The place to meet

My husband and I live at Riverview Retirement Community and so many of us miss the Crescent. It was a beautiful store. You could most always find what you were shopping for there. There were very attentive, knowledgeable clerks who were right there to assist.

My husband’s mother and aunt worked there in the mid -1960s in the pricing department.

These memories come to mind for me:

We lived in a small town 75 miles southwest of Spokane. For Christmas, I was asking for a special doll who came in a suitcase with doll clothes. Daddy dropped mama off so she could run in and purchase my present as my dad, brother and I drove around and around the block. I still have that doll to this day. She was my favorite!

Of course, no Christmas would be complete if you didn’t see the Christmas windows. They were magical!

Going downtown always involved a stop at Zukors to visit my grandmother, who was a clerk there. Special women’s clothing stores like Zukors are also missed.

When it was time, my mother took me to the lingerie department in the basement of the Crescent. A very knowledgeable, sensitive clerk fitted me for my first bra! I think it was one of those stretch as you grow bras – and no, I don’t still have it! Ha!

It was the well-known place to meet under the Crescent clock and then have a special treat at the fountain counter after a fun day shopping at the Crescent.

–Rayna Lee Walker, Spokane

Toys abound

My family had a long relationship with the Crescent department store, which was in part due to the fact that one of my father’s fraternity brothers was in charge of their toy department.

I fondly remember many shopping trips from the small town of Kellogg where we lived into the big city to go shopping at the Crescent. Some of the iconic Cresecnt memories included getting warm cashews from the Johnson nut cart and going to the toy department with dad and finding a new Matchbox car to buy while he talked to his fraternity brother.

We never did get any special treatment or bargain in the toy department due to dad’s friend, but always enjoyed going there. I rarely got anything costing more than a few dollars, but it was always something that I couldn’t find elsewhere. Items typically included Matchbox or Gorgy cars, and various Perfect -brand chemistry set items.

Predictable annual trips were made in the fall, before school started, to get school clothes and right after Thanksgiving to see the big, animated window display, the model train layout in the toy department and, of course, to see Santa.

It wasn’t till many years later that I learned a secret about visiting Santa. Not only did you get your photo taken with Santa, but magically you got one of the items you asked Santa for at the annual children’s Christmas party at the Bunker Hill Staff House in Kellogg.

The mining company my father worked for held an annual Christmas party for children of salaried employees. I think that the union put on a party for children of the hourly employees.

The party at the Staff House was special as the big house was always lavishly decorated and Santa always gave you exactly one of the presents you had asked for.

Turns out, that at least in the case of the Crescent’s Santa, there was a microphone on Santa that broadcast to a speaker out of sight where the child’s parent could stand and listen to what was being asked for.

In my case and certainly others the parent then shared the list with the company Santa, who to our delight delivered exactly one of the requested presents. It all seemed very magical.

–Richard (Rick) Chapman, Kellogg, Idaho

The queen of the whole excursion

I’ve had your article from the Oct. 12 newspaper on my desk debating if I wanted to respond to your request for memories of the old Crescent department store. As a child of the 1950s, do I have memories? You bet I do. Do I want to bring them back up to the surface? Not really. Not when I think of the current lonely streets of downtown Spokane now.

Back then, downtown was magical, a vibrant atmosphere, no skywalks that take forever to get from one building to another, but hub-bub in the streets, the sidewalks. Businessmen in fedoras and suits, women in high heels, gloves, hats and red lipstick – and, yes, fur coats.

Where to go first was the question as we stepped out of the city bus: the Bon Marché, the Paris hat shop, Newberry’s, Bernard’s, Rusan’s, Sartori’s, Payless Drug, John W. Graham, the Main Street Market, Grant’s, Kress, cocktails at the Skylark (a Manhattan for mom, a Shirley Temple for me), the choices were endless. But the queen of the whole excursion? The Crescent! The doorman, the elevator man, meeting friends under the clock then upstairs to lunch at the Apple Tree room that included a fashion show. Glamorous models going table to table to show off clothes and coats from the various departments. Then a quick touch-up in the Ladies Lounge. And marzipan candy that looked like little fruits if I had been good.

We shoppers weren’t the only ones in our best attire either. The sales clerks had a dress code then, suits and ties for men, black dresses and heels for women. (Nowadays I can’t tell if someone is a store employee or just rolled out of a tent from a camping trip.)

And the Christmas window display! Walking along sidewalks in lightly falling snow with my parents (yes, at night), well, that goes without saying. The decorations in that store were the topper of the whole year, the grand finale.

Then the Crescent was gone, the heart of downtown, and everything else went with it. I retired in 2016 and after my last day at work I got on the bus and I never went downtown again. Why should I? To stand there and wonder where everything, where everyone has gone? No thanks. The Crescent will forever be a part of me, you can’t take that away. I feel sorry for people who never knew it or experienced it as I did. As Bob Hope would say, “thanks for the memory.”

–Nadine Joubert, Spokane

Great place to shop and work

Growing up in Spokane in the 1940s and ’50s, the Crescent was the place to shop in Spokane.

As a child, the small book department was my favorite place in the store. I loved Albert Payson Terhune’s stories featuring collies (Lad in particular) and collected every one. A special treat was eating at the lunch counter that was near the famous Crescent clock. The egg salad sandwiches and lime milkshakes were so good, I ate them every time.

In the summer of 1962, I was planning my wedding when I decided to apply for work at the Crescent. That fall, I received word to come in for an interview. I was hired to work in the business office and my first job was alphabetizing customer receipts on a lettered board. They were then added and filed. After filing for six months, I was promoted to adding up the daily receipts.

June of 1963 found me expecting my first child, so I had to resign from my job. The story policy prevented women working, if visibly pregnant.

I continued to shop for my family of six until the store closed in 1992. The Christmas windows were always enjoyed by children and adults alike.

The Crescent was a great place to work and a great place to shop!

–Elaine Callihan, Spokane