Photos

Hi Everyone,

Still haven't had a chance to get out and take some new photo's yet. Here's the Lobby of the Davenport Hotel just a beautiful job the new owners did restoring this grand hotel back to it's original state. The wife and I stayed here back in 1982 before I left for boot it closed down in 1985. Have a great weekend.

From: http://www.thedavenporthotel.com/index.php?act=/history


The Davenport Hotel was neither Louis Davenport's idea nor was it built with his money. Leading businessmen desired a large public house in which to board and entertain their guests. They wanted a building to represent their dreams and ambitions and to speak for the ages, as architecture does, that Spokane was built by great men. Great men were sought to build and run it. Their searches for the best men of architecture and hospitality ended with their first choices, Cutter and Davenport. Leveraging Davenport's already strong name, the Davenport Hotel Company was formed in 1912 and preparation of the site began that year. The hotel tower went up in eight months of 1913 using horse carts, steam jacks and hand tools. Not a single worker was seriously injured or killed--a rarity for the time. Cutter and Davenport shopped the world for ideas and furnishings for their new hotel. They wanted it to represent the world to Spokane and be Spokane's welcome to the world. Cutter designed spaces inspired by the great architects of France, England and Spain. Davenport filled them with fine art and songbirds and prepared to seat his guests at tables dressed in the finest Irish linens from Liddell (whose linens sailed on the Titanic) and set with 15,000 pieces of silver (the largest private commission ever created by Reed and Barton). Ever since opening day, the hotel has promoted itself as "one of America's exceptional hotels." It still does. It's still true.


The September 1915 Hotel Monthly described Louis Davenport as "the man with a vision who created a hotel with a soul." Davenport was a "quiet, unassuming, earnest man," but demanded perfection in every facet of his operation. He ordered silverware be set exactly one thumbknuckle from the edge of the table; coins be washed and bills be pressed through housekeeping before being given in change; the lobby fireplace be always burning as an abiding symbol of hospitality. In all things, he wanted his staff to consider first the comfort and convenience of the guests. "When you get that 'home' feeling in the hotel," he once commented, "you get all that can be attained."

Architect Kirtland Cutter came to Spokane attracted by the same things that brought Davenport, an uncle with a job. Cutter was a frustrated bank teller by day and pursued his artistic talents at night, though he was never fully satisfied in creating works of art that only hung on the wall. Cutter found his true calling when his uncle commissioned him to draw up a house. Cutter came to view architecture as "art incarnate," and invited his patrons to step over the frame and enter a three diminensional painting in which they could work and play. Mr. Cutter lit the first fire in the hearth of all his commissions as a symbol of welcome to the new owners. Similarly, he lit the first fire at the Davenport Hotel which Mr. Davenport ordered be constantly tended as a welcome to visitors. The order still stands and while the fireplace has been converted to natural gas, it continues to burn as an abiding symbol of hospitality.

The Davenport Hotel was often called "the house of comfort." Mr. Davenport liked that description very much. "In all things," he wrote, "the hotel sincerely tries to so well please its guests that they will be glad they came, sorry to leave and eager to return." This mission statement still guides the hotel today.