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Building History

Llewellyn "Louie" Marks Davenport (also written "Louis," 1868-1951)relocated to Spokane, WA, to work with his uncle Elijah Juhn Davenport, Jr., (1850-1929) at his Pride of Spokane Restaurant located in 1889 at 302 1/2 West Sprague Avenue. (See R.L. Polk and Company's Spokane City Directory, 1889, p. ) A rampant fire wiped out 32 blocks of Spokane's Downtown area on 08/04/1889, another in a series of fires that swept through the West in that year. These highly destructive blazes consumed urban and rural settings alike including: the Cheney, WA, Fire of 04/18/1889; Republic, WA, Fire of 06/03/1889; Seattle Fire of 06/06/1889; Ellensburg, WA, Fire of 07/04-05/1889; Bakersfield, CA, Fire of 07/07/1889; Santiago Canyon Fire of 09/24-30/1889 that burned swaths of Orange, Riverside and San Diego County. In addition, fires in the State of MT during 1889 burned approximately 88,020 acres. These conflagrations occurred as a result of a persistent drought that had begun in about 1886 and lasted another decade in parts of the West.

The fires of 1889 reset the urban environments of Seattle, Ellensburg, Bakersfield and Spokane, occasioning changes in local building codes, enhancement of local fire departments, and influencing the exodous and in-flow of new architects, carpenters, and engineers to decimated areas.

Just after the fire, the enterprising Louie Davenport opened a temporary Waffle Foundry restaurant to feed bewildered Spokane residents. A year later, he leased space in a building at 207-209 West Sprague Avenue to open the first Davenport's Restaurant. By 1890, Uncle Elijah had moved on to managing both the Merchants Hotel and the Chamberlin Lodging House. (See R.L. Polk and Company's Spokane Falls, Washington, City Directory, 1890, p. 187.)

Davenport resided in an apartment in the adjoining Hotel Pennington in 1909. (See R.L. Polk and Company's Spokane City Directory, 1909, p. 323.)

Demolition

Davenport's Restaurant was gutted to make space for a Davenport Hotel Parking Garage. Only aspects of the original facade were retained.

PCAD id: 24146