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This day in history: Voters backed tax to boost Riverfront Park. Pastors declared ‘vigorous opposition” to Sunday flying circus

Spokane voters approved a $3.4 million levy to develop a new entertainment complex underneath the iconic umbrella dome at Riverfront Park, The Spokesman-Review reported on Sept. 17, 1975. The newspaper also reported that challengers were leading two of three Spokane City Council primaries. The one incumbent who was the top finisher in his race, John H. Winston, would lose in the November election to the James Chase, who would later go on win a race for Spokane mayor. And 18-year-old Mike Ormsby was the top vote-getter for a Spokane School Board seat. Ormsby would later serve as U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington. (Spokesman-Review archives)
Spokane voters approved a $3.4 million levy to develop a new entertainment complex underneath the iconic umbrella dome at Riverfront Park, The Spokesman-Review reported on Sept. 17, 1975. The newspaper also reported that challengers were leading two of three Spokane City Council primaries. The one incumbent who was the top finisher in his race, John H. Winston, would lose in the November election to the James Chase, who would later go on win a race for Spokane mayor. And 18-year-old Mike Ormsby was the top vote-getter for a Spokane School Board seat. Ormsby would later serve as U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington. (Spokesman-Review archives)
By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

From 1975: Spokane voters approved a $3.4 million special levy to develop a new entertainment complex underneath the iconic umbrella dome at Riverfront Park.

The levy needed a 60% majority, and it passed with 63.4%.

The vote represented “a maturing process for Spokane voters showing they are taking a close look at measures rather than voting negatively, regardless of what’s at stake,” said Roger K. Anderson, chairman of Citizens for Riverfront Park.

The plan was to create a “Pavilion Circus,” complete with theaters, food concessions, an ice rink, arcade games, and a “Disneyland-type experience” about Spokane history.

Park architects promised that the former U.S. Pavilion would become a prime tourist attraction.

An air show (or "flying circus") that had been scheduled for a Saturday in Spokane was moving to a Sunday, The Spokesman-Review reported on Sept. 17, 1925. The newspaper also reported that H.H. Hebert, president of Spokane's Kemp & Hebert's department store shot himself in a duck hunting accident at his ranch northeast of Coulee City. He was reported to have lost his left foot and to be in critical condition at Sacred Heart Hospital. (Spokesman-Review archives)
An air show (or “flying circus”) that had been scheduled for a Saturday in Spokane was moving to a Sunday, The Spokesman-Review reported on Sept. 17, 1925. The newspaper also reported that H.H. Hebert, president of Spokane’s Kemp & Hebert’s department store shot himself in a duck hunting accident at his ranch northeast of Coulee City. He was reported to have lost his left foot and to be in critical condition at Sacred Heart Hospital. (Spokesman-Review archives)

From 1925: Spokane was hosting a “big flying circus” – an air show – on the upcoming Sunday

Yet one particular group was in “vigorous opposition.”

“The desecration of the Lord’s day under the guise of patriotism should not be allowed any more than the performance of a wild animal circus on Sunday,” said the president of the Spokane Ministerial Association. “I am urging my members to refrain from patronizing such an open violation of sacredness of the day.”

Another minister said he would be “grieved to know” that anyone from his congregation “supported such a proposition by their presence.”