Then and Now: The fight over the stations
As Expo '74 plans came together, a group of Spokane rail fans tried to save the downtown train stations.
Section:Then & Now
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| The Spokesman-Review
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Jesse Tinsley
| The Spokesman-Review
Trying to save the train stations
Many people have asked why Spokane didn’t keep the 1902 Great Northern depot and 1914 Union Station, which were torn down for Expo ’74.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the insurmountable obstacles to Expo ’74 fell one by one: moving of train tracks and train traffic away from the waterfront; railroad companies agreeing to give up land and buildings; securing funding from local, state and federal governments, all under a deadline of the fair’s opening in May 1974.
But the historic depots were in the way. That didn’t sit right with Jerry Quinn, a local advertising executive who was, and still is, crazy about trains.
Quinn formed Save Our Stations, a group of about 70 members who held their first meeting June 22, 1972, at the Inland Empire Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.
Quinn made it clear that he wasn’t against Expo.
At that meeting, he told the Spokane Chronicle, “There is a crying need for improvement of downtown Spokane and this (Expo ’74) is the only way it’s going to happen.”
“However, people talk about Expo ’74 as an ecological exposition. Ecology means to me preservation,” he said. “Preservation, not destruction, then seems to me to be the first order.”
He also didn’t like the idea of tearing down the GN station but leaving the clock tower. “I think the tower idea is a mistake. It will look like a tombstone.”
Quinn, and others, suggested that the buildings could be used as community centers, event venues or civic buildings.
Even as the group began circulating petitions to save the depots, the Park Board and city Plan Commission approved the plan to demolish them. City Council member Del E. Jones said “I think I speak for the majority of the people in this city. They (the stations) have served their purpose and they are eyesores. Let’s get rid of them.”
The group gathered enough signatures to force the city to put the issue to voters, who were warned that if they voted to keep both stations, the city would have to pony up at least $1.5 million to renovate them. Voters rejected the measure by a 3-to-1 margin in November 1972.
“I tried. I lost. Oh, well,” Quinn said on the 40th anniversary of Expo, but added, “It makes me feel good that it (the clock tower) was saved.”