By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com
Nothing puts you as instantly into the story of Spokane, Washington as a stay at the grand, historic Hotel Davenport.
For the past 110 years – except for the 15 years it was boarded up with a wrecking ball looming – the Davenport has been at the center of Spokane’s society. Staying here puts you into that story – most remarkably when you see the black-and-white photographs on the wall and see the rooms just as they were, easily imagining the people filling them just as then.
Since the Davenport opened in 1914, it has been known as Spokane’s “living room” and folks would make their date to “meet me at the fireplace.” Today, it is even more than that – it is like someone who has been listening and watching all these things unfold over the past 110 years and is so anxious to share.
Louis Davenport who built this grand hotel had been operating a hugely successful restaurant with a grand ballroom at a time when the number of business travelers and salesmen coming through the Spokane transit hub on the Great Northern Railway was burgeoning. Davenport was approached by local investors to build a hotel that would cater to the growing demand.
Considering Davenport’s humble beginnings (he is a classic incarnation of the American Dream), he was surprisingly sophisticated in wanting his hotel to not only give visitors the feeling of making a Grand Tour through Europe, but with state-of-the- art construction and the most modern amenities.
The Davenport was the first hotel in the country with air conditioning, a central vacuum system, ice cold drinking water piped to each guest room, housekeeping carts and accordion ballroom doors, Marshall Taylor, the Davenport’s Guest Experience Manager, tells me on a grand tour of the hotel. Davenport used steel-reinforced concrete for his building material and imported artisans to make the pillars look like veined-marble and the cast plaster beams to look like wood with gilded reliefs. Indeed, this is how the structure, even after being closed for more than 15 years, could be restored, albeit at the cost of millions, to its former grandeur. (Guest rooms were in fact gutted and rebuilt and redesigned to appeal to modern guests/meet modern standards).
Davenport hired architect Kirtland Cutter who had become Spokane’s most prominent architect after the Great Fire of 1889 destroyed most of the downtown, responsible for so many of the city’s iconic mansion homes (I later see the magnificent Campbell House), buildings and bridges (including the majestic Monroe Street bridge) to design the Davenport Hotel to bring the world to Spokane. The lobby is in the Spanish Renaissance style, with utterly stunning beams and a skylight that in fact is lighted by sunlight (they had to put black tar on it during WWII because of the proximity to Fairchild Air Force Base; it was cleaned up during the restoration.)
The Isabella Ballroom, named for Queen Isabella, was originally the hotel’s dining room is in the the Spanish Renaissance style of northern Spain.
The Marie Antoinette Ballroom is in French Neo-Classical design (Mrs. Davenport’s favorite room in the hotel) – the crystal chandeliers are original, each costing $10,000 (more than the cost of a family home at the time). You can still feel what it was like to dance on the original floating dance floor, suspended on cables so dancers could been light on their feet. There is a photo of the ballroom on opening night in 1914. Women used to gather on the balcony and if they spotted a fellow they liked, might drop a glove that the fellow would return and ask for a dance. Originally there was a door that led to salesmen’s rooms, where they would conduct mini-trade shows to show off their wares.
The Elizabethan Room is in English Tudor-style, possibly the first hotel ballroom in the world to employ folding panel doors to divide one large room into several smaller rooms (the original panel doors are still used). The chandeliers are original, each made with 75 pounds of sterling silver. A few of the hotel’s original 405 telephones are along the base of the window wall.
The Grand Pennington Ballroom evokes Imperial Russia. This room was created during the renovation and named for the Pennington Hotel that once occupied the site. New chandeliers are from Spain, carpeting from England.
The Hall of Doges, designed by Cutter, is almost mythical in its beauty – it literally takes your breath away – you feel you have been transported to Venice. Spokane’s oldest ballroom, the Davenport boasts it is the only “flying ballroom” in the world. Indeed, the room was originally above Davenport’s restaurant in 1904, the year Cutter converted the red brick façade of the restaurant into a Spanish mission design, and a decade before the hotel opened. At the time, it was the largest and grandest ballroom in the West (you can well believe the hyperbole), built at a cost of $30,000. Cutter took as his inspiration the Palaces of the Doges in Venice. But in the 2000 renovation, the entire Hall of the Doges was removed intact by a crane and placed inside the newly constructed east wing of the hotel (the original restaurant was completely removed and now serves as the carport). There is actually a photo of the ballroom “flying” in the air.
The Peacock Lounge with its magnificent stained glass ceiling of some 5,000 pieces, has a décor and ambiance that exudes the flamboyance of the Jazz Age. With the Davenport in the center of Spokane’s downtown entertainment district, the Peacock Lounge the place for pre-and post-show libations (check out the award-winning double martinis and custom cocktails). (Open seating, first-come, first-served).
The fireplace in the lobby restaurant, which Davenport insisted upon as a symbol of hospitality, was first lit by architect Cutter in September 1914 and, as Davenport decreed, remains lit each and every day, even in summer. “Meet me by the fireplace” was a popular expression among the locals.
The fountain in the middle of the lobby, Taylor tells me, is made of stone from the same quarry as the Lincoln Memorial.
For the restoration, they were able to preserve the exquisite woodwork and detail, copying what needed to be replaced. Taylor points me to a bit of wood molding where if you look closely, you can see where the words are scrawled, Will…..You….Marry….Me…stretched out on the wood trim.
It is legend about how it got there (encouraged by the hotel, no doubt), but most believable is that during the 2000-2 restoration, the restorer fell in love with a woman who worked in the banquet department and he embedded the words to propose. “It has become the popular place for proposals,” Taylor relates.
I love exploring this place – there is so much to see, discover and marvel at, especially with the wonderful ways the hotel showcases its history and heritage just about everywhere you look.
To say the Davenport is grand would be an understatement – the hotel has hosted almost every US president of the 20th century as well as a few royals.
Spokane has always been a hub for culture and entertainment, as much as for business and commerce as well as for the entertainers and audience-goers – Mary Pickford, Tyrone Power, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Bob Hope, Will Rogers, John Philip Sousa and Elvis Presley. and that tradition continues today with more recent celebs – Cher, Neil Diamond, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jerry Seinfeld and Sting because Spokane is still a cultural hub, which you see when you cross the street..
Most notably, though is Bing Crosby – the illustrious singer and movie star. He was born in Spokane (you can visit his childhood home on the campus of Gonzaga University. But before Crosby was so established as a singer, the young Harry “Bing” Crosby was the drummer for a local band called the Musicaladars that played on the KHQ radio station. KHQ, one of the first commercial radio stations in the Pacific, first went on the air in Seattle in 1922 and moved to Spokane to broadcast from the Davenport Hotel’s roof tower in 1925. The station featured local bands like Brill’s Orchestra and The Musicaladers. Crosby was featured on a radio interview, which led to him getting his national contract, Taylor relates, and the rest, as they say, is history. There is a marvelous display about Bing Crosby in a china cabinet on the mezzanine floor. (A theater named for him is right outside.)
Bing Crosby’s story is wonderful, but I am most fascinated with Louis Davenport, who epitomizes America’s self-made man.
Taylor tells me that Louis Davenport came to Spokane in 1889 when he was about 20 years old, to help his uncle, Elijah Davenport, with his restaurant. His uncle’s restaurant burned down in 1889 with the Great Fire that destroyed most of the downtown.
“Louie went into the rubble and found a waffle iron. He built a temporary shop with a wood frame and canvas cover and used that waffle iron to sell waffles to the workmen clearing the debris. He opened his own restaurant in one year.”
With the rail line, Spokane had become a hub and a crossroads for commerce. Davenport’s restaurant was so successful, that Spokane’s founding fathers approached him to build a hotel to accommodate the business meetings of salespeople coming from Montana, Idaho, north and west, selling silver and gems from the Idaho mines, fish, seafood, lumber. They needed a hotel with a large meeting space – the closest other business hotel would have been the eight-story-high Empress Hotel in Victoria, Canada, built in 1908 with only one ballroom.
The Davenport, at 14 stories, was the tallest building in Spokane until The Paulson was built in the 1920s.
You can see from the photos on the wall that the Davenport was a locus for history. The most profound photo is of the first American Indian Congress, in 1925, a gathering of the indigenous tribes in the Davenport ballroom that followed the 1924 passage of the Indian Citizenship Act. (I see the photo in an exhibit, 1924: Sovereignty, Leadership, and the Indian Citizenship Act, at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture).
The Davenport operated through the Great Depression and World War II. Louis Davenport sold the hotel in 1945 and died in 1951. The hotel changed hands several times, and when it finally closed in 1985, was in disrepair. At one point, the city wanted to demolish it and put up a proverbial parking lot. But the cost of asbestos abatement would have been ruinous.
Local entrepreneurs Walt and Karen Worthy came to the rescue. They spent two years and millions of dollars to restore the Davenport to its grandeur (the guest floors and service areas are new). The Davenport reopened in the summer of 2002 with stunning amenities including a gorgeous pool and a luxurious spa.
The restoration was really a labor of love – and we get to appreciate the extraordinary artisanry of Melvin Holmes, the main restorer. His wife, Janice Holmes, was passionate about the restoration, especially the Marie Antoinette ballroom, where she scraped off layers of whitewash to find the original colors underneath – salmon, teal – and insisted it be restored to the original. Today it is absolutely magnificent (not gaudy) – with the soft salmon and delicate mint green, and gilding that does not overwhelm. She passed away before the project was completed so her husband, Melvin, painted a portrait of her in 1930s mid-century modern dress, which is on the balcony.
Now owned by KSL Capital Partners (which owns the Alterra Mountain Company and Ikon Pass), there are five hotels in the Davenport Hotel Collection here in Spokane – each with a different theme, spirit, ambiance and vibe: Besides the Historic Davenport (Old World elegance), there is the Grand, which opened 2015 with a modern, Vegas style; the Tower, built in 2007 which has a safari theme; and the Centennial, which is a convention hotel.
The fifth property, the Lusso (a boutique hotel across the street from the Davenport, where Louis Davenport, himself, used to live, which was acquired in 2009 and has an Italian theme), has since been entirely renovated and renamed, and reopening in March as
The Louie at Davenport Hotel, a 48-key boutique property offering personalized luxury including Butler Service (the first and only offering of this kind in Spokane).
I love that The Davenport is walking (or biking) distance to most of what I want to see (especially just a few blocks from Riverfront Park, where I find myself at least twice a day, and where you will find America’s largest urban waterfall), making for an ideal base for exploring the city’s hot culinary scene, nature and cultural offerings, like the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, and the riverfront Centennial Trail. What isn’t in walking distance is easily accessed by a superb public transit system not more than a block away, which provides frequent service to take you everywhere else (including the airport, just about 20 minutes away) for a $2 fare (the return is free within two hours).
And so I immediately go off to explore. My first stop is by bus: the magnificent Manito Park, where I discover a fountain in its formal garden was donated by Louis Davenport.
The 284-room Historic Davenport Hotel, offers electric car charging, convenience store, hair salon, indoor swimming pool, wedding services, concierge service, three restaurants, two bars/lounges, 18 meeting rooms, conference space, self- and valet parking, full-service spa, 24-hour fitness facilities, steam room, hot tub, disability accommodations, sustainability programs and is a member of the Marriott Autograph Collection (and Marriott Bonvoy loyalty)
The Historic Davenport Hotel, 10 S Post Street, Spokane, WA 99201, DavenportHotelCollection.com, 509-455-8888, 866-238-1697.
Next: Exploring Spokane
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