A retrospective look at the Ridpath Hotel

William M. Ridpath, born in 1845 in Putnam County, Indiana, volunteered for service during the Civil War, serving two hitches before mustering out and attending college. Col. Ridpath taught school and studied law until passing the bar in 1872.

He served in the Indiana Legislature and was later appointed by President Chester A. Arthur as an agent to various tribes in the West before moving to Spokane in 1888.

In Spokane, Ridpath practiced law and was appointed prosecutor in the pre- and post-statehood era. He invested in mining and real estate. His investment in the Le Roi mine in Rossland, British Columbia, paid off handsomely, and he used his profits to open the five-story Ridpath Hotel on West Sprague Avenue in 1900.

In 1937, the hotel bought the YWCA building next door, at the corner of First and Stevens, and expanded into it. In 1963, the former Spokane Hotel – across First from the Ridpath – was purchased and turned into the Ridpath Motor Inn, connected by the city’s first skywalk. Eight years later, the owners of the Ridpath purchased the building at Sprague and Stevens, the former Halliday Hotel.

Ridpath died in 1914, but his descendants continued to operate the hotel, which was gutted by fire in 1950. It was rebuilt in 1952 as a 12-story modern tower.

The remaining family members sold the hotel in 1988 for $9 million to a partnership that included West Coast Hotels.

Las Vegas hotelier Douglas Da Silva bought the hotel in 2006, and the Ridpath’s property began to be divided, at one time split up into nearly 30 different properties. The complicated ownership picture spurred numerous problems and lawsuits, and the property began to seriously deteriorate, some of the owners facing foreclosure. One of the leading investors in the Ridpath in that period, Greg Jeffries, eventually was sent to prison on fraud charges.

In 2012, a team of investors including Paul and Janet Mann, Mark Mackin, Ron Wells and Lawrence “Mickey” Brown formed the Ridpath Penthouse LLC and purchased the property for $500,000.

Wells, a longtime Spokane developer of historic properties, helped spearhead the effort, though he left the ownership group after he was convicted of insurance fraud in 2019 unrelated to the Ridpath project.

In 2023, the Ridpath reached an important milestone on its long road from closure as a hotel. After a $30 million renovation, it reached full capacity. Of the 206 apartments, 182 were rented as affordable housing. The remainder were rented at market rate.

Ridpath’s micro-units are the same size as the hotel rooms, with a sleeping and living area including a full bath, a two-burner stove, sink, microwave and medium-sized refrigerator. Corner units on each floor, a total of 36, were furnished with a washer and dryer. All include utilities and free Wi-Fi.