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AKA: First National Bank, Office Building #2, Riverside, Spokane, WA; Exchange Bank Building, Riverside, Spokane, WA
Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - banks (buildings); built works - commercial buildings - office buildings
Designers: Cutter and Poetz, Architects (firm); Kirtland Kelsey Cutter (architect); John C. Poetz Sr. (architect)
Dates: constructed 1889-1890, demolished 1949
6 stories
Overview
This distinctive, six-story bank building, located on the northwest corner of Riverside Avenue and Howard Street, was designed by the Spokane architectural firm of Cutter and Poetz.
Building History
Early settler, James N. Glover (1838-1921), the "father of Spokane," Horace L. Cutter, (born c. 1847 in OH) architect Kirtland Cutter's uncle, James Monaghan, H.W. Fairweather, and businessman Frank Rockwood Moore (d. 1895) began the 1st National Bank of Spokane in 1882. (See N.W. Durham, History of the City of Spokane and Spokane Country Washington, Vol. I, [Chicago: S.J Clarke Publishing Company, 1912] p. 423.) Their bank prospered becoming one of the most successful in the city between 1882-1893.
Horace Cutter began to introduce Kirtland into Spokane's business community in 1886, easing the way for his nephew to attract new clients. Kirtland Cutter would design, for example, houses for Glover, Moore and his uncle between 1887-1889. The Great Spokane Fire of 08/04/1889, a blaze that obliterated 32 blocks in the city's business district, also proved something of a boon for Cutter and his new partner, John C. Poetz, Sr., (1859-1929). The three bankers had their first offices--designed by architect Herman Preusse (1847-1926)--in a building destroyed by flames.
They directed the commission for the second 1st National Bank to Kirtland and his new partner, John C. Poetz, Sr. Cutter and Poetz also lost their offices to the fire, as well. The 1st National Bank Building was one of five large downtown blocks that the pair designed in 1889 alone.
So satisfied were they with the 1st National Bank Building that they moved their new offices into it in 1890 according to the R.L. Polk Spokane Falls City Directory. In 1893, the Cutter and Poetz office was located on its 6th floor. In 1908, they continued to maintain their offices on the sixth floor of the Exchange Bank Building. (See R.L. Polk and Company's Spokane, Washington, City Directory, 1908, p, 333.)
Demolition
The Exchange Bank Building was demolished in 1949.
PCAD id: 16007
