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Overview

The Galax Hotel operated at 254 West Main Avenue in Spokane, WA, between 1910 and 1959.

Building History

William Hutchinson Cowles (1866–1947) migrated to Spokane in 1890, the year after the great fire, to work at the Spokane Spokesman. He eventually made enough money to buy the Spokesman and the competing Spokane Review by 1893. He then merged them to form the Spokane Spokesman-Review. Cowles commissioned the construction of the Galax Hotel in either 1909 or 1910. Cowles aimed to open it by about 07/15/1910, according to a 06/05/1910 story in his newspaper. I.C. Hartzell and C.F. Merry leased the hotel from Cowles when it opened. (See “New $80,000 Building on Main and Bernard Which Is Leased for Five Years at $60,080,” Spokane Spokesman-Review, 06/05/1910, p. 25.)

J.H. Johnson managed the Galax Hotel located on the corner of Riverside Avenue and Bernard Street in 1909. (See R.L. Polk and Company's Spokane City Directory, 1909, p. 1295.)

From at least 1933 until the hotel's closure, Mabel Horan Terry (born 09/02/1889 in Atchison, KS-d. 04/16/1974 in Spokane, WA) served as manager of the Galax Hotel. (See Spokane, Washington, City Directory, 1933, p. 647.) She started working at the Galax soon after her marriage to her first husband Roland B. Jones (born 08/1888 in WA-d. 04/25/1924 in Spokane, WA) on 04/22/1911. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Washington State Archives; Olympia, Washington; Washington Marriage Records, 1854-2013, accessed 06/25/2024.) Roland was a hotel clerk at the Galax, and Mabel started doing various jobs after he took over as manager in 1912. (See Jesse Tinsley, Spokane Spokesman-Review.com, "Then and Now: Galax Hotel," 03/27/2017, accessed 06/25/2024.) She and Roland lived in the hotel beginning in 1912, but he passed away in the spring of 1924. Mabel continued to live and work at the Galax and married her second husband Edward Terry (born 11/20/1876 in Leavenworth, KS-d. 06/08/1955 in Spokane, WA), a lumberman. As she had performed most jobs of keeping the hotel open, she was made manager in the midst of the Depression.

Building Notes

Galax urceolata is a flowering plant of the Diapensiaceae family, indigenous to the Eastern US, also called “beetleweed” or “wandflower.” Its name comes from the Greek word, gala, or milk, for its white flowers.

A barber shop operated at the Galax Hotel in 1932. (See Spokane, Washington, City Directory, 1932, p. 227.)

Alteration

An extra floor was added to the Galax after its initial completion in 1910.

Demolition

The Galax Hotel was torn down to make room for parking in 1959.

PCAD id: 25290