Then and Now: Spokane Brewing office

Spokane had four breweries trying to provide beer to the workers rebuilding Spokane after the 1889 fire. The beer makers jockeyed for market share through the 1890s.

The beer wars eased when Galland-Burke Brewing merged with Henco Brewery and a New York brewery to form Spokane Brewing and Malting in 1902.

In 1913, Spokane Brewing built a two-story office building at Lincoln Street and Broadway Avenue. The elegant block, designed by an unknown architect, was funded by the sale of the New York brewery, on Trent Avenue, that was purchased by railroads that were building the new Union Station.

In the early 1900s the entire nation debated alcohol. Many political, church and social leaders spoke against liquor for its negative effects on families and society.

Washington state started its own prohibition in January 1916, four years before the country would follow. Spokane’s breweries quickly turned to bottling soft drinks, juices or nonalcoholic beers to survive. From 1920 to 1933, breweries limped along while the Spokane Police Department’s dry squad played cat and mouse games with bootleggers, smugglers and speakeasy bars.

When Prohibition ended in 1933, Spokane’s brewers were off to the races. The repeal of the Volstead Act now allowed beer at 3.2% alcohol.

Rainier Brewing Co. bought Spokane Brewing in 1938. With management now in Seattle, the little office building was empty by 1940.

In 1962, all production was moved to Seattle and Spokane’s plant shut down. The YWCA bought the property and built a center with a gym, pool and other facilities in 1965. Those buildings were demolished in 2019.

The brewery office west of Lincoln Street was purchased by Spokane Lithographing, a specialty print shop, in 1944. The printing business sold the building to American West Realty Company in 1978, though the shop stayed open until 1987.

In 1994, American West remodeled the structure and moved in.

A new company, North by Northwest Productions , moved into the 903 W. Broadway Ave. portion of the building around 1995. Staffed by veteran TV and video production professionals, the company made many types of advertising, promotional and documentary projects, including a handful of feature films.

The film company sold the building to developer Larry Stone in 2020. It is across from Stone’s Spokane Falls Tower that is under construction on the old brewery grounds.