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Building History

The first buildings of a milling complex had been completed in 1895 financed by Simon Oppenheimer, a capitalist eager to rebuild Spokane following its disastrous Fire of 1889; in the years just following the fire, Oppenheimer threw himself into efforts to build faciliites for his Northwest Milling and Power Company including a lumber mill, known as the Sawmill Phoenix, and a grain mill, utilizing power from the Upper Falls of the Spokane River that flowed nearby. In order to purchase the land above the falls, Oppenheimer traveled to New York and Holland to acquire capital. He succeeded in obtaining $300,000 from a Dutch banking concern, Amsterdamsch Trustee's Kantoor B.V. Unfortunately for him, however, Oppenheimer lost control of his sprawling project in 1895-1896, as he began defaulting on debts incurred in the construction. Ironically, as debts encircled him, he was just on the brink of success, as both grain saw mills were complete by this time. By 06/1896, Oppenheimer fled to South America without his family, leaving behind an ownership mess that clogged the local courts until 12/1900. Various parties, including Amsterdamisch Trustee's Kantoor, the City of Spokane, and other speculators from New York and Boston, all wanted control over the lucrative real estate around the falls and the water rights to the falls itself. (For more background on Oppenheimer and the succeeding lawquits, see Larry Hasse, Industry & Subsistency E.F. Cartier Van Dissel and Sawmill Phoenix: The Logging of Old-Growth Timber and the Making of a Small Farm Community, 1897-1943, [Victoria, BC: FriesenPress, 2017], pp. 1-6.)

As noted by historian Larry Hasse, ""In the final deal of December 1900, for the price of the Kantoor's original $300,000 loan, the Washington Water Power Company purchased the Upper Falls but gave the operating Sawmill Phoenix and the idle Spokane Flour Mill twenty-year property leases. To make this possible Washington Water Power had gotten a $2 million loan in October 1899 from the Franklin Trust Company of Brooklyn, New York, bonded by the company's extensive property holdings. The Washington Water Power Company had the abilitiy to buy the mill property on the falls, and a whole lot more. In addition, Sawmill Phoenix and the Spokane Flour Mill could continue their operations without inconvenience or concern of further lawsuit. Furthermore, Sawmill Phoenix now had fresh funds available to reconstruct Oppenheimer's minimal sawmill into a high-functioning downtown business that would actually make a profit by putting out a wide range of wood products." (See Larry Hasse, Industry & Subsistency E.F. Cartier Van Dissel and Sawmill Phoenix: The Logging of Old-Growth Timber and the Making of a Small Farm Community, 1897-1943, [Victoria, BC: FriesenPress, 2017], p. 5.)

Demolition

The grain silos on the mill complex were torn down and replaced by a one-story building housing the J.L. Cooper and Company, Mortgage Company. Other buildings of the mill complex survived and were rehabilitated in 1973-1974 into a shopping center, the Spokane Flour Mill, in anticipation of Expo '74 in Spokane.

PCAD id: 22263