Then and Now: Realty Building

The 15-story U.S. Bank building at Stevens Street and Riverside Avenue was built as the Old National Bank in 1910, setting a new mark as the tallest building and the most stylish, with its light-colored brick and creamy glazed terra cotta tile.

With the optimism of Spokane’s boom years, some believed ONB would spark even more “skyscrapers.” The bank stood out from the no-frills brick hotels and commercial buildings nearby, attracting the interest of Spokane Realty Company owner Julius Galland.

Julius Galland was born in 1860 in Oregon and moved to the Spokane area in 1883, along with brothers Theo, Samuel and Adolph. Theo headed one of the brothers’ first ventures, the Northwest Loan and Trust Company.

Along with land development, timber and banking, the brothers started Galland Burke Brewing and Malting in 1891. Their beers would satisfy the thousands of workers who were rebuilding the city after the 1889 fire had leveled it.

Perhaps the Gallands could see Prohibition on the horizon but the brothers pivoted from beer to land ownership in the new century. Julius formed Spokane Realty Company in 1905 to oversee current real estate and start new projects. The company’s holdings were estimated at $1.5 million in 1909, according to The Spokesman-Review.

Spokane Realty believed another modern business tower could be viable east of the ONB and put up the eight-story Realty Building near Bernard Street and Riverside in 1910, with plans to build another next door. Architect Albert Held incorporated an iron -girder frame into the design, which was called “fireproof.”

The building opened with only 65% occupancy and didn’t attract more development. The second building was never added.

Theo died in 1908, Samuel in 1921, Julius in 1926 and Adolph in 1935, but the Galland family continued to own a large portion of downtown through the 20th century.

The KREM 1340-AM radio station moved into the Realty in 1947 and placed a radio tower on the roof.

The station became KSPO in the 1950s.

In 1960, the city of Spokane bought the Realty and moved the Spokane Police Department, municipal courtrooms and its jail there. The city had outgrown old City Hall downtown and needed the space.

In 1971,Catholic Charities bought the building and remodeled it into 84 low-income senior apartments. It opened as the Delaney Apartments in 1972.