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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Then and Now: Phillips Petroleum

1963: The Phillips Petroleum Company’s new Spokane Distribution Center opened at 110 N. Fancher Road. The 43,000-square-foot warehouse and office facility was built to stock tires, batteries and vehicle accessories for distribution to wholesalers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Western Montana. The $308,000 structure would also house the firm’s city sales office and a shop to rebuild equipment from the company’s service stations throughout the area. Less than a year later, however, the company downsized the local offices and moved out a short time later. (Spokesman-Review Photo Archives)
1963: The Phillips Petroleum Company’s new Spokane Distribution Center opened at 110 N. Fancher Road. The 43,000-square-foot warehouse and office facility was built to stock tires, batteries and vehicle accessories for distribution to wholesalers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Western Montana. The $308,000 structure would also house the firm’s city sales office and a shop to rebuild equipment from the company’s service stations throughout the area. Less than a year later, however, the company downsized the local offices and moved out a short time later. (Spokesman-Review Photo Archives)
By Jesse Tinsley jesset@spokesman.com(509) 459-5378

Petroleum businesses in Spokane started processing crude oil brought from distant oil fields in the 1920s.

The Inland Empire Oil Refinery, one of two refineries in Parkwater, near Felts Field, launched around 1926. Business was rocky and the petroleum fumes angered local residents. The refinery was shut down by the city around 1930.

A new company, Inland Empire Refineries, Inc., owned by Wasatch Oil Refining of Salt Lake City, built a new plant in Hillyard that opened in 1938.

Crude oil was coming from the new oil fields near Cut Bank, Montana, and also from Wyoming.

By the end of 1939, the plant was on pace to process 6,000 train cars of crude a year. The gas was marketed under the brand Washington Chief gasoline locally and as Idaho Chief and Oregon Chief in neighboring states. When World War II started, production ramped up to more than 11,000 train cars a year.

Wasatch Oil merged with Phillips Petroleum in 1949.

Phillips had started in Oklahoma in 1917 and diversified into every area of production, refining, pipelines, transportation and marketing. Starting in 1930, their stations were labeled Phillips 66, a moniker partly taken from Route 66.

Two events dealt a blow to the Spokane refinery: CIO International Oil Workers union staged a strike in 1952 and interstate shipping rates went up 12 cents a barrel, making the cost of transporting crude prohibitive.

Phillips shuttered the plant in 1953, laying off 75 employees. Some of the equipment went to a new refinery in Tacoma.

Although oil refining was going away, Phillips built a 43,000-square-foot warehouse at the corner of Sprague Avenue and Fancher Road to store lubricants, tires and automotive parts for distribution. But a year later, Phillips began downsizing their Spokane offices and moving operations .

Silver Loaf Baking bought the Fancher warehouse in 1971. The company had left their downtown location prior to Expo ’74 and installed ovens, mixers and refrigeration to equip a modern baking plant. In 1979, Silver Loaf was purchased by Snyder’s Bakery, which is now part of Franz Family Bakeries, headquartered in Portland.