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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Then and Now: Palace Department Store

1951: At Main Avenue and Post Street, the Palace Department Store which had been founded in 1890 and in this building since 1909, was sold to the Bon Marche store’s Allied Stores chain a few years earlier. The venerable Palace closed in 1952. The building became a JCPenney in 1953, then it was remodeled into a Nordstrom store after 1972. The structure of the old Palace was torn down in 1999 as part of the River Park Square redevelopment. (Spokesman-Review Photo Archives)
1951: At Main Avenue and Post Street, the Palace Department Store which had been founded in 1890 and in this building since 1909, was sold to the Bon Marche store’s Allied Stores chain a few years earlier. The venerable Palace closed in 1952. The building became a JCPenney in 1953, then it was remodeled into a Nordstrom store after 1972. The structure of the old Palace was torn down in 1999 as part of the River Park Square redevelopment. (Spokesman-Review Photo Archives)
By Jesse Tinsley jesset@spokesman.com(509) 459-5378

American department stores evolved from frontier dry goods dealers in the 1800s into elegant shopping palaces through 20th century and then declined as competition, new management and market forces took their toll.

Rueben Weil, born in 1859 in Hungary, came to the United States at the age of 14 and worked in retail stores in Tennessee and Colorado before arriving in Spokane about the time of the city’s massive 1889 fire. He had $800 in savings that he used to start the Palace Department Store in 1890.

Weil’s Palace, the locally owned Crescent and several other stores competed for customers, held fashion shows and decorated for the holidays.

Weil died unexpectedly of heart problems at 46 in 1905. His wife and family continued running the business.

The Palace was located at least two other locations before moving into a modern six-story building at Post Street and Main Avenue in 1909.

The new store, designed by architect Albert Held, was framed in steel, which allowed for more open space inside and large display windows facing the sidewalk.

The store was the very template of a modern department store, curating clothing, linens, housewares and hardware for Spokane shoppers.

Mrs. Weil sold the Palace in 1912 to the owners of the Crescent. Another department store, Kemp and Hebert, bought the Palace, which was mired in debt and lawsuits, in 1930.

Still in debt, the venerable Palace was sold in 1947 to Allied Stores, owner of the Bon Marche store that had opened a few doors down Main Avenue. The Palace closed for good in 1952.

A new Bon Marche store would open in 1957 at Main Avenue and Wall Street.

The former Palace was remodeled as a new JCPenney store, opening in 1953. Windows in the upper floors were eliminated and the facades were covered in pink and cream panels. Air-conditioning and escalators were added.

The JCPenney store was there until a new one was built across Main and a block west in 1972.

Once empty, the old store was remodeled for the city’s first Nordstrom store in 1973.

When the River Park Square mall was completely redeveloped in the early 1990s, a new Nordstrom store was built and the building was torn down in 1999.